tiJ.TOBIQGRAF 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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Dr.  Godbey  on  his  76th  Anniversary. 


Autobiography 

OF 

Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M, 


AUTHOR  OF 

New  Testament   Commentary,    New   Testament  Translation,    Foot-prints 

of  Jesus  in  the  Holy  Land,   and  Many  Other  Books 

and  Booklets  on  Holiness. 


GOD'S  REVIVALIST  OFFICE, 

"Mount  of  Blessings," 

Cincinnati,  O. 

Copyrighted,  1909,  hy  God's  Revivalist  Office. 


DEDICATION. 

Now  to  the  dear  Holiness  people  in  all  the 
earth,  regardless  of  nationality,  church,  race  or 
color,  this  book,  with  its  forty-seven  predeces- 
sors, is  lovingly,  affectionately  and  prayerfully 
dedicated  by 

THE  AUTHOR. 


J^/^> 


^5. 

(3,^4-A^ 


Contents. 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

Preface    -. .  .  5 

Exordium   8 

I.     Childhood    22 

II.     Striplinghood    48 

III.  Youth    71 

IV.  Young  Manhood 88 

V.     Apology  to  My  Brethren  oe  the 

Campbellite  Church 106 

VI.     Various  Forms  oe  Idolatry 143 

VII.     Arguments  for  Baptism  by  Af- 
fusion     199 

VIII.     The    Seventh     Day    Adventist 

Controversy  240 

IX.     The  Whiskey  War 251 

3 

5500G4 


4  Contents. 

X.     Fight  Against  Satan 263 

XL    Maturity   362 

XII.     Perils 485 

XIII.  Life's  Evening 490 

XIV.  The  Exodus 497 

P'Eroration   504 


Pref 


ace. 


Long  have  the  people  clamored  for  me  to  write  my 
life.  I  did  not  want  to  do  it,  but  found  myself  actually 
incompetent  to  resist  the  united  appeals  of  my  friends, 
who  girdle  the  globe.  I  am  intimately  acquainted  with 
many  of  the  Lord's  dear  people  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Lakes,  while  my  travels 
in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
have  given  me  many  happy  acquaintances  in  all  of  these 
countries. 

The  Lord  has  let  me  live  seventy-three  years,  given 
me  a  splendid  education,  a  bright  conversion,  a  glorious 
sanctification,  permitted  me  to  preach  fifty-three  years 
and  write  forty-eight  books  and  booklets.  I  have  no 
dark  chapter  in  my  biography. 

Though,  as  I  believe,  I  was  converted  at  the  age  of 
three  years,  I  inadvertently  lost  it ;  but  was  reclaimed 
at  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  the  Lord  so  revealed  Him- 
self to  me  as  to  enable  me  ever  since  to  walk  in  the 
light  of  His  kingdom.  He  kept  me  through  ail  the  pre- 
carious and  slippery  paths  of  childhood  and  youth,  so 
fortifying  me  against  the  seducing  enchantments  inci- 
dent to  the  juvenile,  as  to  keep  me  out  of  their  seductive 
quarrels  and  to  enable  me  to  lead  a  moral  life,  without 
ever  contracting  the  vicious  habits  which  blight  the 
innocency  of  childhood  and  blacken   the  escutcheon  of 

5 


6  FnttAcn. 

youth  in  the  overwhelming  majority  of  cases.  He  has 
so  wonderfully  kept  His  healing  hand  on  my  body  that 
I  have  never  been  a  bed-ridden  invalid.  Though  terri- 
ble ailments  have  taken  hold  on  me,  He  has  always 
healed  me  so  quickly  that  I  lost  no  time  comparatively 
and  was  never  missed  from  the  battle-field. 

While  my  dear  father  and  mother  were  utterly  unable 
financially  to  give  me  a  collegiate  education,  God,  in 
His  signal  mercy,  not  only  permitted  me  to  prosecute  a 
thorough  classical  course,  but  has  permitted  me  to  travel 
three  times  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa,  and  within 
recent  years  to  go  around  the  world  again,  travelling 
through  the  great  historic  countries  and  the  most  im- 
portant missionary  fields.  God  is  no  respecter  of-  per- 
sons. He  loves  your  children  as  dearly  as  your  humble 
servant.  Let  them  read  my  biography  and  see  how  I 
began  as  a  penniless  boy,  but  finally  prosecuted  a  thor- 
ough collegiate  education.  I  have  preached  for  fifty- 
three  years  with  the  constant  blessing  of  God  on  my 
labors,  and  am  still  on  the  battle-field,  pressing  the  war 
for  God  and  souls,  having  preached  as  much  by  pen 
as  by  speech.  I  have  travelled  extensively  for  the  glory 
of  God  and  the  establishment  of  His  kingdom  in  all  the 
earth,  so  my  life's  history  will  be  an  inspiration  to  your 
children  to  do  likewise.  There  is  nothing  in  it  which 
will  not  prove  a  blessing  to  the  reader. 

My  life  has  been  quite  eventful.  God  sanctified  me 
fifteen  years  before  the  Holiness  Movement  reached  the 
Great  South,  where  I  was  born  and  reared,  and  He  used 
me  to  preach  entire  sanctification  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  to  Mexico  in  anticipation  of  the  oncoming  move- 
ment. You  will  also  find  in  this  history  a  ten  years' 
war  with  the  Campbellites  and  everything  you  need  on 


Preface.  ? 

the  great  baptismal  controversy,  in  which  all  need  light 
and  grace  to  walk  in  it. 

This  book  will  be  about  the  size  and  make  of  my 
large  Commentaries  and  will  sell  perhaps  for  $1.50. 
You  and  your  children  cannot  do  without  it. 

God  bless  you. 

W.  B.  GodbEY. 


diu 


exordium. 

The  Bible  is  the  biography  of  Christ,  excarnate  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  incarnate  in  the  New.  It  also  con- 
tains the  abbreviated  biographies  of  the  patriarchs,  proph- 
ets, apostles  and  saints.  The  journey  of  life  is  so  pre- 
carious, perilous  and  pestilential  that  we  need  all  pos- 
sible help  by  way  of  information,  warning  and  counsel, 
especially  in  youth,  in  order  to  qualify  us  to  steer  be- 
tween Scylla  on  the  one  hand  and  Charybdis  on  the  other, 
as  in  case  of  deflection  either  way,  one  of  the  insatiable 
whirlpools  is  certain  to  engulf  our  foundering  bark. 
The  Bible  is  the  most  important  of  all  books.  Its  bio- 
graphical phrases  are  pre-eminent  in  value,  especially 
to  the  young  who  are  so  much  better  qualified  to  under- 
stand them  than  its  doctrinal  teachings,  which  become 
so  profitable  as  we  advance  in  years.  After  the  Bible, 
sainted  biographies  come  next  and  should  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  children  and  young  people,  accompanied  by 
special  encouragement,  with  time  and  opportunity  to  read 
them.  The  biographies  of  criminals,  e.  g.,  John  A.  Mur- 
rill,  Captain  Kidd,  Jesse  James,  Younger  Brothers,  etc., 
should  be  burned  to  ashes  by  fathers  and  mothers  as 
quickly  as  they  can  get  their  hands  on  them,  as  every 
youth  who  reads  them  takes  a  cobra  into  his  bosom. 
This  follows  as  a  logical  sequence  from  the  seductive 
power  of  sin. 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  so  frightful  mien 
That,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seea; 

8 


Exordium.  § 

But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  to  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace." 

These  poetic  lines  tell  the  sad  story  of  millions  now  in 
Hell.  It  is  awfully  dangerous  to  hear  recitals  of  atro- 
cious wickedness,  and  should  be  avoided  whenever  pos- 
sible. 

Once  when  a  circuit  rider,  I  happened  to  be  at  home 
chopping  wood  at  the  pile  in  the  yard,  when  a  stalwart 
man  that  lived  in  the  neighbodhood  came  along  on  his 
horse  cursing  like  a  demon.  I  said  nothing,  but  picked 
up  my  hat  and  started  out  of  the  gate.  My  wife,  sur- 
mising that  I  was  going  to  do  something  with  the  man, 
said :  "Mr.  Godbey,  do  you  let  Bill  Heddleston  alone, 
for  he  is  worth  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  will  kill  you 
if  you  interrupt  him."  I  said  nothing,  but  crossed  the 
street  to  where  I  had  seen  the  Campbellite  pastor  at  the 
window  reading,  and  said  to  him:  "Brother,  come  with 
me  to  the  police  judge;  we  must  arrest  that  man."  He 
refused  to  go,  saying:  "It  is  not  worth  while."  I  said: 
"If  you  do  not  go  with  me,  I  will  send  an  officer  for 
you,"  as  I  knew  he  had  heard  it  all,  and  would  have  to 
witness  to  it.  Then  he  picked  up  his  hat  and  went  with 
me.  Fortunately,  passing  a  couple  of  squares,  we  met 
the  judge.  I  at  once  told  him  about  the  man  passing  our 
house  cursing  and  swearing  like  a  demon  eloped  from 
the  bottomless  pit  and  that  I  wanted  him  prosecuted. 
Turning  on  his  heel  and  seeing  a  policeman  at  a  dis- 
tance, he  roared  to  him  to  go  into  the  livery  stable, 
which  was  directly  before  him,  mount  a  horse  and  go 
after  Bill  Heddleston  with  all  his  might  and  bring  him 
back  to  him.  So  he  did.  What  was  the  result?  He 
paid  his  fine  of  forty-five  dollars  for  cursing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  my  wife  and  children.     Afterwards  I  lived  in 


io  Exordium. 

that  house  six  years,  directly  on  that  man's  way  to  and 
from  the  county  seat,  but  he  ever  afterward  passed  by 
like  a  gentleman. 

While  we  should  do  our  utmost  to  keep  our  children 
from  hearing  bad  words  and  seeing  sinful  conduct  of 
any  kind,  let  us  remember  that  there  is  a  magic  in  print, 
rendering  it  far  more  influential  than  words  spoken, 
which  will  evanesce  much  more  quickly  than  seductive 
iniquities  which  we  read  in  an  elegantly  bound  book. 
There  are  many  books  in  Christian  libraries,  avowedly 
good  and  innocent,  which  ought  to  be  burned,  because 
they  indirectly  encourage  sin.  This  point  is  to  be  es- 
pecially guarded  in  the  biographies  of  the  Lord's  dear 
saints,  many  of  whom  have  been  guilty  of  the  darkest 
iniquities,  blackest  crimes,  vilest  debaucheries  and  gross- 
est sensualities,  while  they  served  Satan.  Let  me  warn 
all  such  to  never  write  them  in  their  biographies  for  the 
youth  to  read,  lest  Satan  take  advantage  and  the  charm 
of  the  serpent  shall  prove  too  strong  for  the  fluttering 
bird.  The  awful  whirlpool  from  which  omnipotent  grace 
delivered  these  souls  may  catch  the  reader  in  the  whirl 
of  its  suction  power,  and  he  may  never  receive  the  won- 
derful grace  which  delivered  the  subject  of  the  biography. 
Truth  does  not  require  us  to  give  a  catalogue  of  Satan's 
awful  work  in  our  lives.  It  is  enough  to  confess  it  in 
the  aggregate,  and  drop  the  curtain  over  it  forever; 
showing  up  the  brilliant  victories  of  redeeming  grace, 
till  they  drop  it  into  total  eclipse. 

I  never  dreamed  of  writing  my  biography,  neither 
had  I  any  predilection  in  that  direction.  I  am  sure  I 
never  would  have  written  it  had  not  the  dear  saints  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  constrained  me  to  do  so. 
As  I,  a  few  years  ago,  received  the  call  to  go  around 


Exordium.  ii 

the  world  in  the  interest  of  missions,  doing  what  little  I 
could  to  conserve  the  kingdom  of  God  during  this  fleet- 
ing life,  I  postponed  the  biography  until  after  that  tour, 
apologizing  to  my  clamorous  friends  that  it  would  add 
an  important  interest  to  the  biography.  Therefore  I 
had  utterly  dismissed  it  from  my  mind  and  had  no 
thought  of  writing  it  now,  till,  on  my  arrival,  they  raised 
the  same  importunate  clamor,  insisting  that  I  should 
postpone  it  no  longer,  lest  receiving  my  discharge,  I 
might  pass  away  and  they  never  get  it.  Therefore  I 
acquiesce,  turning  over  the  work  to  the  blessed  Holy 
Spirit  that  He  may  utilize  it  to  the  glory  of  God  when 
I  am  gone. 

I  am  satisfied  that  the  Spirit  will  make  it  exceedingly 
helpful  to  children  and  young  people,  fortifying  them 
against  temptation  and  instructing  them  in  the  way  of 
salvation,  sanctification,  edification,  education,  and  use- 
fulness in  their  day  and  generation.  My  earnest  prayer 
accompanies  this  biography  that  the  reader  may  not 
only  do  as  well  as  the  writer,  but  excel  him  in  all  of 
these  lines  of  duty,  privilege,  erudition  and  achievement. 
The  important  feature  of  biography  consists  in  the  pre- 
ponderance it  gives  to  virtue  over  vice ;  sin  over  ignor- 
ance ;  industry  over  indolence ;  frugality  over  prodi- 
gality ;  holiness  over  depravity ;  and  victory  over  defeat. 
The  fact  that  I  have  no  blank  period  in  my  life,  practi- 
cally and  effectively  given  over  to  Satan,  and  conse- 
quently no  black  segment  in  my  biography,  is  calcu- 
lated to  prove  eminently  inspiring  to  children  and  young 
people  to  avail  themselves  of  the  same  economy  which 
fortified  me  from. the  cradle.  I  do  not  insinuate  that  I 
was  not  a  sinner.  This  I  confess  with  shame.  I  was 
born  in  the  City  of  Destruction  like  the  whole  family  of 


j  2  Exordium. 

lather   Adam  and  mother  Eve,  whose  children,  like  the 
bands  of  the  sea,  have  populated  the  world  in  all  ages. 

Quite  awhile  ago,  responsive  to  a  camp-meeting  call, 
1  went  to  North  Carolina.  At  the  opening  I  was  intro- 
duced to  my  comrade  in  labor,  Sam  Page,  a  former 
notorious  infidel  and  drunken  saloon-keeper,  whose  pro- 
fligacy and  wickedness  had  been  proverbial  in  all  the 
land.  Having  been  wonderfully  converted  and  gloriously 
sanctified,  responsive  to  his  heavenly  calling  he  was  then 
a  flaming  evangelist,  shaking  that  country  with  the  Pen- 
tecostal power,  which,  in  the  mercy  of  God,  character- 
ized his  ministry.  The  power  descended  on  us  and  waves 
of  salvation  began  to  roll  over  the  audience,  revealing 
Him  who  is  mighty  to  save.  Simultaneously  with  the 
rolling  billows,  Sam  would  leap  on  a  bench  and  shout 
aloud,  "Look  here,  all  ye  drunkards,  gamblers,  blas- 
phemers, thieves,  murderers,  and  adulterers,  and  see  me. 
Do  you  not  know  that  I  am  Sam  Page,  the  saloon-keeper, 
drunkard,  blasphemer,  gambler  and  infidel?  See  what 
God  will  do  for  you  if  you  will  repent  of  your  sins  and 
seek  Him  with  all  your  heart  as  I  did.  Oh,  He  will  won- 
derfully save  and  gloriously  sanctify  you!"  Then  I 
would  leap  up  by  his  side,  throw  my  arms  around  him 
and  shout  to  the  people:  "Look  at  me,  O  ye  good  Meth- 
odists, Baptists,  Presbyterians  and  Campbellites,  who 
keep  the  moral  law  and  walk  irreproachably  before  the 
world,  but  have  never  been  born  from  above,  regener- 
ated by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  know  not  what  it  is  to 
receive  a  new  heart.  I  was  once  where  you  are  and  as 
surely  on  my  way  to  Hell  as  Sam  Page  in  his  saloon. 
God  loves  you  as  dearly  as  the  drunkards,  gamblers, 
swearers,  and  debauchees ;  and  if  you  do  not  seek  and 
find  the  Lord,  get  your  sins  forgiven  and  receive  intelli- 


Exordium.  13 

gent  salvation,  you  are  as  sure  of  Hell  as  the  poor  repro- 
bates who  plunge  headlong  into  the  vulgar  vices." 

As  God,  in  His  providence,  through  a  preaching  father, 
a  sainted  mother  and  a  Christian  home,  fortified  me  from 
the  cradle,  I  have  wasted  no  time  in  the  devil's  work- 
shop; but  have  ever  been  diligently  employed  in  laud- 
able industries,  physical,  intellectual  and  spiritual.  No- 
body on  the  face  of  the  earth  can  rise  up  and  say  aught 
against  my  life  so  far  as  the  eye  of  the  world  is  con- 
cerned, yet  I  was  a  sinner;  but  my  sins  were  on  the  in- 
side, except  unhygienical  treatment  of  my  body,  for 
which  I  alone  was  to  suffer.  Being  a  church  member 
from  my  infancy,  and  my  life  irreproachable,  so  far  as 
the  world  could  discriminate,  I  was  really  a  practical 
hypocrite.  That  word  in  the  Bible  means  one  who  plays 
at  religion  which  he  does  not  possess.  I  doubt  not  but 
that  the  great  majority  of  church  members  of  this  day 
are  in  the  same  dilemma.  You  see  throughout  the  Bible 
that  the  hypocrite  abides  the  common  destiny  with  the 
liar,  the  thief,  murderer,  drunkard,  blasphemer,  adul- 
terer and  fornicator. 

We  "Americans,  as  a  rule,  are  all  of  European  extrac- 
tion. Very  recently  the  Asiatics,  especially  from  China 
and  Japan,  have  been  coming  to  our  country.  I  can 
only  trace  my  Anglican  paternity  and  my  Hibernian 
maternity  but  a  few  generations.  My  great  grandfather 
was  powerfully  converted  under  the  preaching  of  Bishop 
Asbury,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  He  came 
home  shouting  aloud,  called  up  his  thirty  negro  slaves 
whom  he  held  in  bondage  under  the  laws  of  old  Virginia, 
told  them  his  experience,  fell  on  his  knees  and  prayed 
for  them,  got  up  and  thanked  them  for  their  good  be- 
havior  and    obedience,   and   told    them   they   were    his 


14  Exordium. 

slaves  no  longer,  to  go  and  be  free ;  all  he  asked  of  them 
was  to  meet  him  in  Heaven.  So  you  know  he  got  a 
genuine  case  of  conversion,  because  it  cost  him  fifteen 
thousand  dollars,  which  he  cheerfully  paid  in  setting 
them  all  free.  Though  we  always  lived  in  slave  states, 
there  never  was  a  negro  in  our  family  afterward.  My 
grandfather  was  powerfully  converted  in  a  Methodist 
camp-meeting  when  my  father,  his  oldest  child,  was  old 
enough  to  recognize  and  remember.  He  came  home  at 
midnight  shouting  the  praises  of  God,  and  told  grand- 
mother that  he  was  converted.  Then  he  read  the  Scrip- 
tures, sang  a  song  and  prayed,  and  always  afterward 
kept  it  up,  morning  and  evening.  I  here  give  you  a  few 
lines  of  the  song  he  sang  that  night: 

"How  happy   every  child  of  grace, 
Who  knows  his  sins  forgiven ; 
This  earth,  he  cries,  is  not  my  place, 
I  seek  a  place  in  Heaven. 

"A  country  far  from  mortal  sight, 
E'en  now  by  faith  I  see; 
The  land  of  rest,  the  saint's  delight, 
A  Heaven  prepared  for  me." 

Some  time  after  his  conversion  he  emigrated  to  Ken- 
tucky and  settled  in  the  woods.  There  were  many  deer 
and  other  wild  animals  in  that  country.  Near  their 
house  was  a  deer  lick,  whither  the  animals  were  in  the 
habit  of  coming  a  short  time  before  day.  An  old  hunter 
in  the  neighborhood  was  in  the  habit  of  coming  before 
day  and  hiding  in  a  suitable  position  to  shoot  deer  when 
they  came  to  the  lick.  The  Lord  gave  my  grandfather 
six  sons  and  about  the  same  number  of  daughters  to 
live  to  be  grown.  Five  out  of  these  sons  became  Meth- 
odist preachers,  and  so  lived  and  died.  The  daughters 
were  as  bright  and  spiritual  as  the  sons ;  but  the  old 


Exordium.  15 

fogy  notion  that  women  should  not  preach  embargoed 
their  privileges  and  kept  them  out  of  the  ministry.  This 
old  hunter  relates  that  the  family  was  in  the  habit  of 
rising  very  early  and  all  getting  ready  to  go  to  their 
work  by  sunrise;  he,  while  watching  for  the  deer,  would 
see  them  going  away  in  different  directions  in  the  morn- 
ing; for  secret  prayer,  and  when  they  would  meet  in  the 
house  they  generally  raised  an  old-style  shout. 

The  last  time  I  ever  saw  my  grandfather  was  while  I 
was  his  presiding  elder.  I  visited  him  when  ninety-six 
years  old,  when  he  had  me  assist  him  in  making  an 
invoice  of  his  family,  which  at  that  time  numbered  five 
hundered  souls,  twenty-five  of  whom  were  licensed 
preachers  of  the  Gospel. 

As  all  names  have  originated  from  circumstances,  of 
course  our  family  received  its  name  from  the  fact  of 
their  eminent  godliness,  the  original  name  being  "Godly." 
Some  one  at  some  time  writing  it  happened  to  replace 
the  "1"  by  a  "b."  In  England  the  name  is  spelled 
"Godbe;"  in  France  it  is  generally  spelled  "Godfrey," 
e.  g.,  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  who  was  the  celebrated  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  armies  of  the  Crusaders  who 
captured  Jerusalem,  A.  D.  1099.  You  will  find  his  tomb, 
along  with  that  of  Baldwin,  king  of  Jerusalem,  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 

The  Godbeys  are  a  very  large  family,  and  dispersed 
throughout  the  continent.  Of  course  my  acquaintance 
with  them  is  quite  extensive.  I  have  never  known  one 
of  them  who  was  a  drunkard,  or  an  infidel,  or  a  blas- 
phemer, or  addicted  to  any  of  the  vulgar  vices.  Neither 
have  T  ever  known  one  of  them  who  had  reached  ma- 
jority and  was  not  an  orderly  member  of  the  church. 
My  own  dear  father,  John  Godbey,  preached  the  Gospel 


i6  Exordium. 

in  the  Methodist  Church  for  sixty-two  years  and  went 
up  to  Heaven  in  a  chariot  of  fire,  (*.  e.,  was  killed  by 
lightning).  He  was  eighty-three  years  old,  he  and 
mother  having  passed  their  golden  wedding,  living  in 
Smithton,  Pettis  County,  Mo.  On  Sunday  morning  he 
went  to  the  German  Methodist  Church  and  worshipped 
with  them,  understanding  not  a  word,  as  the  service  was 
all  in  German,  but  partaking  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  with 
those  godly  people,  which  was  followed  by  one  of  their 
good  old  German  songs,  which  they  all  sang  as  if 
Heaven  was  in  view  and  glory  in  their  souls.  Mean- 
while he  got  happy  and  went  around  through  the  con- 
gregation shaking  hands  with  them.  After  adjournment 
he  came  home  and  was  standing  in  the  door  looking  out, 
contemplating  the  falling  rain  and  praising  God  for 
blessing  the  thirsty  earth,  when  God  dropped  down  a 
chariot  and  gave  him  a  ride  to  Heaven,  without  an  ache 
or  a  pain. 

My  maternal  ancestry  migrated  from  Ireland  four  or 
five  generations  ago.  Their  name  was  O'Kelly  in  the 
Emerald  Isle ;  when  they  landed  in  America,  dropping 
the  "O,"  they  simply  reported  the  name  Kelly.  You 
will  not  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  they  were  staunch 
Roman  Catholics,  claiming  the  direct  succession  from 
St.  Patrick.  It  is  said  that  all  of  the  O'Kellys  in  Ireland 
are  Catholics.  They  settled  in  the  wild  woods  cf  Ken- 
tucky one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  when  that  was 
all  a  howling  wilderness,  inhabited  by  wild  beasts  and 
savages.  They  had  not  been  living  there  long  when 
their  baby  died,  breaking  the  hearts  of  the  whole  family. 
They  were  utterly  illiterate,  and  knew  nothing  about 
spiritual  things,  except  what  the  priest  had  taught  them. 
Therefore,  as  there  was  no  Driest  commandable  to  bap- 


Exordium.  17 

tize  the  baby,  they  all  sank  into  the  deepest  grief,  be- 
lieving that  without  a  doubt  the  sweet  and  lovely  idol 
of  their  hearts  had  actually  gone  clown  into  the  fires 
of  purgatory.  Therefore  they  made  inquiry  of  every- 
body they  could  meet,  doing  their  utmost  to  find  a 
priest  to  get  the  soul  of  their  dear  baby  out  of  the  fires 
of  purgatory;  but  in  their  deep  distress  they  were  utterly 
unable  to  hear  of  a  priest  anywhere.  The  truth  of  the 
matter  was,  no  Catholic  priest  had  yet  come  into  that 
country,  and  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  command  any 
sacerdotal  service.  In  this  distressing  dilemma,  they 
happened  to  run  on  a  squatter  and  asked  him  if  he  knew 
anything  about  a  Catholic  priest,  or  where  they  could 
possibly  find  one.  He  told  them  just  to  give  up  their 
quest,  for  they  could  not  possibly  find  one,  as  there  were 
none  in  all  that  country.  But  he  said  to  them:  "There 
is  a  fellow  going  about  over  the  country,  called  a  circuit 
rider,  and  it  may  be,  for  aught  I  know,  that  he  is  a 
priest."  Well,  they  were  so  ignorant  that  they  did  not 
know  what  a  circuit  rider  meant,  and  as  the  man  had 
suggested  that  he  might  be  a  priest,  they  thought  that 
perhaps  a  priest  in  this  new  country  was  called  a  circuit 
rider.  Therefore  they  said  to  him :  "Please  send  that 
circuit  rider  to  our  house  as  quickly  as  possible."  He 
said  he  would  watch  for  him  and  the  first  time  he  saw 
him,  tell  him  he  was  wanted  at  their  house.  That  circuit 
rider  was  James  Hall,  whom  Bishop  Asbury,  when  pre- 
siding over  the  Baltimore  Conference,  had  sent  to  Ken- 
tucky, giving  him  the  whole  state  for  his  circuit,  as  there 
were  but  few  settlements  in  it  at  that  time.  James  Hall 
was  the  first  Methodist  preacher  whom  Bishop  Asbury 
sent  to  Kentucky.  In  the  providence  of  God,  although 
he  came  around  only  once  a  month,  he  happened  to  be 


18  Exordium. 

at  that  time  in  that  part  of  his  round,  and  the  squatter 
soon  met  him  and  told  him  the  news,  that  he  was  most 
urgently  needed  at  Mr.  Kelly's.  He  was  surprised,  as, 
since  there  were  so  few  people  living  in  the  country,  he 
had  a  good  chance  to  get  information  about  every  family 
and  he  knew  that  the  Kellys  were  rigid  Roman  Cath- 
olics. He  was,  therefore,  puzzled,  soliloquizing  in  his 
mind  what  urgent  business  they  could  have  with  a 
Methodist  preacher.  The  squatter  gave  him  the  needed 
information,  stating  to  him  that  their  baby  had  died  and 
they  believed  its  soul  was  in  purgatory,  because  there 
was  no  priest  to  baptize  it,  and  so  were  ransacking  the 
whole  country,  distressed  almost  to  death  and  hunting 
a  priest  to  get  the  baby  out  of  purgatory. 

Upon  reception  of  this  urgent  call,  James  Hall  turned 
his  horse  and  expeditiously  dismounted  at  the  Irish 
cabin.  Going  to  the  door  and  knocking,  the  woman  of 
the  house  responds.  He  says  to  her :  "I  am  that  circuit 
rider  you  sent  for.  What  will  you  have?"  "Oh,"  she 
said,  "we  are  so  badly  needing  a  priest  to  get  the  soul 
of  our  precious  baby  out  of  purgatory,  and  we  heard  of 
you  and  did  not  know  but  you  were  a  priest,  in  this 
country  called  a  circuit  rider  because  you  ride  around  on 
a  horse.    Now,  please  tell  me,  are  you  a  priest?" 

Here  you  see  the  absolute  necessity  of  that  beautiful 
gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  denominated  wisdom,  (i  Cor. 
12:8.)  Without  that  gift,  do  you  not  see  how  this 
broken-hearted  Irish  mother  would  have  bluffed  the 
circuit  rider.  But,  while  James  Hall  had  no  collegiate 
learning,  he  was  wonderfully  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  enriched  with  His  gifts,  therefore  he  was  prepared 
to  face  the  emergency.  He  responded  unhesitatingly  in 
the  affirmative:     "Yes,  madam,  I  am  a  priest."     In  this 


Exordium.  19 

he  did  not  prevaricate,  because  every  called  and  sent 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  is  a  priest  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek  (Heb.  7th  chapter).  Then  the  dear  woman, 
deti  mined  that  no  defalcation  should  supervene,  clinch- 
ed the  matter  by  interrogating  him:  "But  are  you  a 
Roman  Catholic  priest?"  Now  you  see  this  gift  of  wis- 
dom again  coming  to  his  relief,  as  he  had  to  be  rigidly 
truthful  on  all  occasions.  It  would  not  do  for  him  to 
answer  in  the  affirmative ;  meanwhile  a  negative  answer 
would  ruin  everything,  utterly  taking  the  job  out  of  his 
hands.  Therefore  he  responds:  "Not  exactly;  but  I 
can  do  anything  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  can  do."  Then 
she  at  once  settled  down  in  the  conclusion  that  the 
priests  in  this  new  country  were  in  some  respects  differ- 
ent from  those  in  Ireland;  but,  "What  does  that  signify 
if  they  can  do  everything  that  appertains  to  the  office 
and  power  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priest?  If  that  is 
so,  he  can  certainly  get  my  dear  baby  out  of  purgatory." 

After  this  soliloquy,  which  instantly  passed  in  her 
mind,  she  proceeded  at  once  to  inform  him  that  her 
sweet  baby  had  passed  away  in  the  absence  of  a  priest 
to  baptize  it,  and  of  course  it  had  gone  to  purgatory,  and 
he  must  please  proceed  at  once  to  get  it  out.  Then  he 
responded:  "My  sister,  your  neighbor  who  gave  me 
your  invitation  also  informed  me  about  the  baby.  I  have 
had  it  before  God,  and  am  happy  to  say  it  is  not  in  pur- 
gatory, but  in  Heaven,  and  is  the  happiest,  prettiest 
thing  you  ever  saw,  and  has  never  cried  nor  whimpered 
since  it  got  there,  and  the  angels  all  want  it  in  their 
arms  at  the  same  time." 

This  so  pleased  the  family,  that  they  almost  died  of 
joy  to  think  the  sweet  baby  whom  they  so  dearly  loved 
was  already  in  Heaven  and  the  angels  so  delighted  with 


20  Exordium. 

it.  Then  he  asked  them  if  they  had  ever  been  born 
again,  and  they  answered  in  the  negative,  saying  that 
they  had  never  heard  of  such  a  thing.  Then  he  told 
them  that,  while  the  baby  was  already  in  Heaven,  if  they 
wanted  to  see  it  again  they  must  be  born  from  above,  as 
the  Savior  said  to  Nicodemus.  They  were  so  delighted 
with  the  glad  news  which  he  brought  them,  and,  having 
all  confidence  in  everything  the  "priest"  told  them,  they 
believed  it  without  a  doubt,  therefore  they  asked  him 
to  come  and  see  them  just  as  often  as  he  could.  Here 
comes  in  the  supernatural  spiritual  gift  of  wisdom  again. 
He  had  no  church  edifice  in  all  the  land,  and  did  all  of 
his  preaching  in  the  cabins  of  the  squatters  and  under 
the  green  trees.  Therefore  the  broad  invitation  they 
had  given  him  to  visit  them  as  their  priest  was  all  the 
open  door  he  wanted  to  make  their  house  a  regular 
preaching  place  in  his  monthly  round.  So  he  says  to 
them:  "One  month  from  this  day  look  for  me  to  come 
and  see  you  again,  and  feel  free  to  invite  your  friends 
to  be  present  during  my  visit."  Therefore  going  around, 
— for  he  had  an  appointment  every  day  in  the  month, — 
he  published  his  appointment  to  preach  in  the  house  of 
the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  family. 

Sure  enougb,  the  day  and  hour  arrived,  and  the  house 
was  crowded  with  those  red-hot,  fire-baptized  Metho- 
dists, for  at  that  time  there  was  no  other  sort,  Satan  not 
as  yet  having  invented  the  Methodist  ice  factory,  which, 
in  our  day,  to  our  deep  regret,  is  doing  a  lamentably 
extensive  business.  Now  these  Methodists  all  threw 
open  their  alligator  mouths  and  roared  like  lions,  sing- 
ing the  grand  full  salvation  songs  which  God  gave  John 
and  Charles  Wesley,  so  loudly  that  the  angels  heard  them. 
Falling  on  their  knees,  their  fire-baptized  prayers  rose 


EXORBIUM.  21 

in  smoking  volumes  till  it  seemed  that  the  clapboards  of 
the  roof  would  all  take  wings  and  fly  away  and  lodge 
among  the  stars,  and  the  puncheon  floors  break  through 
under  their  ponderous  leaps  and  mighty  shouts.  Mean- 
while the  bottom  of  Heaven  drops  out  and  swelling 
floods  pour  down  and  inundate  the  whole  congregation. 
Under  the  irresistible  power  the  whole  family  falls  pros- 
trate, paralyzed  with  a  nightmare  of  repentance  and  see- 
ing themselves  forever  lost  and  crying  aloud  for  mercy; 
while  those  red-hot  Methodists  were  just  in  their  glory, 
praying  those  Roman  Catholics  through  into  the  king- 
dom. What  is  the  result?  Those  indefatigable  Metho- 
dists never  let  up  till  that  Irish  family  was  gloriously 
converted.  They  joined  the  Methodist  Church  and  all 
turned  preachers.  They,  like  the  Godbeys,  are  preach- 
ing throughout  the  continent  this  day.  Therefore,  you 
see  that  my  family,  on  both  sides,  are  preachers ;  my 
mother's  family  by  pre-emption  Roman  Catholics,  and 
my  father's  family  having  emanated  from  the  Anglican 
Church. 


Autobiography  of 
Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M. 


Chapter  I. 
CHILDHOOD. 


I  was  born  June  3,  1833,  by  the  waters  of  Cttfty  Creek, 
in  Pulaski  County,  Kentucky.  During  my  infancy  my 
parents  migrated  six  miles  east  and  settled  on  a  farm 
which  they  had  purchased  by  the  waters  of  Pitman's 
Creek,  four  and  one-half  miles  north  of  Somerset,  the 
county  seat.  There,  in  the  providence  of  God,  I  lived 
until  1  was  twenty  years  old,  the  family  remaining-  a 
number  of  years  afterwards.  There  were  ten  of  us 
children,  five  sons  and  five  daughters;  one  of  the  former 
having  gone  to  Heaven  in  his  infancy.  The  other  nine 
all  reached  maturity.  The  four  surviving  sons  all  be- 
came preachers,  but  the  daughters,  by  reason  of  the  pre- 
vailing dogma  against  woman's  ministry,  were  unfor- 
tunately withheld  from  the  privilege  which  I  am  satis- 
fied they  would  have  participated  in  with  great  delight. 
Half  of  our  number — three  sisters  and  two  brothers — 
are  now  in  Glory.  My  youngest  brother,  Martin  Adams, 
was  very  suddenly  called  to  his  heavenly  home  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty-eight.  He  went  around  and  paid 
off  all  of  his  little  debts  and  settled  up  everything,  telling 

sa 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  ■  23 

the  family  and  friends  that  he  was  near  the  end  of  his 
life,  whereas  he  was  enjoying  perfect  health  and  bidding 
fair  to  live  long.  The  day  was  bright  and  fair,  and  the 
family,  at  that  time  consisting  of  father,  mother  and  elder 
brother  Josiah,  were  all  at  the  house.  The  latter  was 
leading  his  horse  through  the  front  yard,  when  Martin 
walked  out  after  him,  and  the  animal,  doubtless  mistak- 
ing him  for  a  dog  or  some  other  animal,  kicked  him 
in  the  breast  with  all  its  power,  the  single  stroke  with 
the  newly  shod  hoof  proving  his  instantaneous  release 
from  his  tenement  of  clay.  His  brother  darted  back 
and  caught  him  in  his  arms  as  he  said  his  last  words, 
"O  Lord,  I  am  dead,"  and  breathed  no  more.  He  was 
a  very  sweet  singer,  as  well  as  a  teacher  and  preacher, 
being  a  collegiate  graduate.  He  was  nearly  always  sing- 
ing when  he  was  walking  about.  On  that  occasion,  when 
he  walked  out  of  the  house  for  the  last  time,  he  went 
singing  these  beautiful  words :  "Will  any  one  be  at  the 
beautiful  gate,  watching  and  waiting  for  me?"  This 
took  place  in  Pettis  County,  Mo.,  whither  the  family 
migrated  after  the  close  of  the  Confederate  War.  My 
two  surviving  brothers,  John  K.  and  Josiah  P.,  are  both 
preaching  in  Missouri. 

I  above  mentioned  the  fact  of  my  father  purchasing 
the  farm  to  which  we  migrated  when  I  was  an  infant. 
They  lived  on  that  farm  twenty-five  years,  till  we  chil- 
dren were  all  old  enough  to  labor  and  take  care  of  our- 
selves ;  my  three  sisters  older  than  myself  having  mar- 
ried and  gone  away.  My  father,  having  gone  in  debt 
for  the  farm,  never  did  succeed  in  fully  paying  for  it. 
As  the  years  rolled  away,  with  creating  new  debts  to 
pay  old  ones,  and  never  getting  clear  of  financial  encum- 
brance, finally  the  long-dreaded  issue  came  and  the  farm 


24  Autobiography   o* 

had  to  be  sold  to  pay  the  debts.  This  was  a  sad  epoch 
in  the  history  of  our  family,  as  we  never  afterward 
owned  a  home.  While  it  was  wrapped  in  darkness  at 
that  time,  the  cloud  has  long  ago  drifted  away  and  been 
superseded  by  floods  of  light,  victory,  honor  and  glory. 
When  we  lost  our  farm,  having  no  land  to  cultivate,  we 
all  turned  preachers,  and  have  been  at  it  ever  since. 
Perhaps,  if  we  had  never  lost  our  home,  some  of  us 
would  be  there  to  this  day,  digging  on  those  poor  hills 
(as  it  was  in  a  very  sterile,  rough  country),  instead  of 
going  out  with  the  commission  of  our  Lord  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  preaching  the  everlasting  Gospel. 

During  my  babyhood,  my  mother  went  away,  leaving 
me  in  the  care  of  my  three  elder  sisters.  They  got  hold 
of  some  jimson  pods  and  gave  them  to  me  for  toys  in  a 
broken  skillet.  As  I  played,  some  of  them  broke  open 
and  the  seeds  dropped  out.  Babylike,  I  put  them  into 
my  mouth  and  swallowed  some  of  them.  You  know  the 
jimson  is  a  narcotic  poison.  When  mother  got  home  I 
was  in  convulsions,  cramping  as  if  I  would  surely  die. 
She  sent  at  once  for  the  doctor,  who  labored  hard  to 
relieve  me  by  emetics.  Though  I,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  survived  the  immediate  effects  of  the  poison,  they 
always  believed  its  after  effects  lingered  with  me,  stunt- 
ing my  growth,  consequently  I  received  notoriety  as  the 
dwarf  of  the  family.  Frequently  when  our  relatives 
were  about  and  looked  at  all  of  us  children  in  the  home, 
my  father  said  to  them  in  reference  to  me  that  he  feared 
I  was  so  stunted  that  I  would  never  be  any  account. 
Though  I  remained  reticent,  my  ambition  arose  Napo- 
leonically,  soliloquizing,  "I  will  let  you  and  everybody 
else  know  about  that  in  due  time.  Doubtless  the  poison 
did  stunt  my  growth,  as  I  have  never  known  one  of  our 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  25 

family,  either  paternal  or  maternal,  who  is  not  much 
larger  than  myself.  I  have  always  been  the  physical 
dwarf  of  the  family.  This  dwarfhood  is  not  much  rec- 
ognized since  I  reached  maturity,  but  it  gave  me  con- 
stant and  universal  notoriety  during  my  boyhood,  as  the 
people  in  that  country  were,  many  of  them,  physical 
giants.  Therefore  I  was  constantly  pronounced  the  runt, 
and  my  parents  always  referred  to  the  poison  of  those 
jimson  seeds  as  the  cause.  My  body  continued  to  grow, 
however,  till  I  was  twenty-five  years  old,  thus  much 
relieving  the  dwarfhood  which  rendered  me  so  conspic- 
uous when  a  child.  While  I  suppose  they  are  correct 
in  reference  to  the  stunt  thus  received,  I  have  never 
felt  any  of  the  effects  of  it  since  I  can  remember.  While 
perhaps  in  this  way  my  growth  was  impeded,  I  am  satis- 
fied it  never  had  any  effect  on  my  activity.  I  have  often 
heard  my  mother  say  that  when  T  was  eight  months  old 
and  she  was  expecting  me  to  begin  to  crawl  over  the 
floor,  to  her  surprise  I  got  up  and  walked  and  never  did 
crawl.  I  was  always  pronounced  the  fleetest  runner 
in  the  entire  community,  and  the  most  adroit  wrestler. 
Such  became  my  notoriety  that  they  were  constantly 
after  me  to  wrestle,  and  I  was  so  fond  of  it  that  I  never 
refused,  unless  my  competitor  was  too  small.  Unless 
he  was  considerably  larger  than  myself,  I  refused  to 
take  him.  The  secret  of  my  success  was  the  quickness  of 
my  nerves.  When  arrangements  were  made,  holds 
taken,  and  our  eyes  fixed  on  the  hat  which  a  boy  was 
holding  and  whose  drop  was  the  signal  for  us  to  begin. 
I  was  so  quick  that  I  always  threw  my  competitor  before 
he  made  his  effort;  consequently  it  did  not  make  much 
difference  how  large  he  was,  as  his  weight,  when   1  had 


26  Autobiography   o* 

tripped  him,  would  only  expedite  the  velocity  and  aug- 
ment the  certainty  of  his  fall  to  the  ground. 

I  have  an  exceedingly  early  recollection,  and,  for  the 
glory  of  God,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  say  it,  an  extraordinary 
memory.  I  could  always  read  a  book  and  tell  substan- 
tially everything  in  it  by  memory.  When  I  was  quite 
a  little  fellow,  I  doubt  seriously  whether  I  was  three 
years  old,  my  mother  took  me  on  her  lap  and  told  me 
wonderful  things  which  electrified  me  with  astonishment 
and  thrilled  me  with  interest,  as  they  were  utterly  new 
and  I  had  never  heard  them  before.  She  told  me  that 
the  time  would  come  when  the  dead  would  all  rise  from 
their  graves,  and  the  world  take  fire  and  burn  up.  Oh, 
how  this  stirred  and  excited  my  infantile  mind  and 
moved  my  childish  heart.  I  said :  "O  mother,  where 
will  I  be  when  the  world  is  on  fire?"  Then  she  said: 
"O  my  child,  you  will  be  shouting  with  the  angels  in 
the  air."  Then  I  said:  "Mother,  how  do  you  know?" 
She  responded :  "I  have  given  you  to  the  Lord  for  a 
preacher;  your  father  is  a  preacher,  and  I  want  all  of 
my  sons  to  preach."  If  it  were  now,  she  would  have 
said  all  of  her  daughters,  too,  for  my  sisters  were  all 
intellectually  bright  and  spiritual,  and  would  have  made 
good  preachers.  She  proceeded  to  tell  me  not  only  that 
she  had  given  us  to  the  Lord  for  preachers,  but  she 
had  the  evidence  that  we  would  preach.  She  also  told 
me  about  my  baptism,  in  which  I  was  dedicated  to  God 
forever  and  became  a  member  of  His  Church.  Conse- 
quently I  was  to  be  good,  preach  the  Gospel,  and  go  to 
Heaven  when  I  left  the  world.  Though  I  do  not  think 
I  was  more  than  three  years  old,  then  and  there  I  re- 
ceived the  call  to  preach,  and  it  rested  on  me  ever  after- 
ward.    So  profound  and  thrilling  was  my  impression, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  27 

that  I  could  not  wait  for  the  rolling  years  to  bring  me 
into  manhood,  but  told  my  playfellows  that  I  was  a 
preacher.  Then  we  began  to  hold  meetings,  all  the  chil- 
dren ever  afterward  recognizing  me  as  a  preacher.  Those 
impressions  never  left  me,  but  strengthened  their  grip 
with  the  lapse  of  years.  Though  I  am  now  seventy- 
three  years  old,  I  would  rather  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor  and  starve  to  death,  than  to  be  a  millionaire  and  not 
preach. 

I  know  I  received  the  call  to  preach  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  my  dear  sainted  mother  at  that  time, 
and  I  verily  believe  that  I  was  then  converted  to  God. 
Of  course  I  had  never  lost  my  infantile  justification,  with 
which  I  was  born  into  the  world.  This  brings  us  to  the 
consideration  of  a  most  important  Bible  truth,  i.  e.,  in- 
fantile justification  and  regeneration.  When  does  it 
take  place  ?  We  answer :  "The  moment  soul  and  body 
constitute  personality,  which  is  in  the  pre-natal  state, 
by  the  normal  economy  of  grace  every  human  being  is 
born  from  above."  John  3 :  7.  When  I  was  a  circuit 
rider,  I  made  that  statement  in  the  presence  of  my  pre- 
siding elder,  who  was  a  good  old  man,  but  not  a  class- 
ical scholar.  He  at  once  contradicted  me  upon  the 
allegation  that  I  had  people  born  again  before  they  were 
born  the  first  time.  The  answer  to  his  argument  is  in 
the  simple  fact  that  "again"  in  those  Scriptures  is  a 
wrong  translation.  Our  Savior  said  "anoothen,"  whose 
first  meaning  is  "from  above,"  and  this  is  the  true  trans- 
ition. The  Bible  clearly  reveals  that  every  human  being 
is  born  from  above,  thus  becoming  a  child  of  God,  jus- 
tified and  regenerated,  before  the  natural  birth.  If  this 
were  not  so,  all  infants  dying  unborn  would  be  sure  of 
Hell ;  since,  without  the  supernatural  birth,  no  soul  can 


28  Autobiography   o? 

go  to  Heaven.  Our  Savior's  treatment  of  the  babies 
abundantly  confirms  this  conclusion.  He  everywhere 
takes  them  in  His  arms  and  certifies  "of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  Heaven."  Therefore,  you  see  in  all  His 
ministry  that  He  fully  recognizes  the  infantile  member- 
ship of  His  kingdom,  positively  certifying  not  only  their 
membership,  but  holding  them  up  as  bona  fide  paragon 
membeis,  assuring  His  disciples  that  they  must  be  con- 
verted and  become  like  them.  Now  if  we  take  these 
factc  and  harmonize  them  with  His  positive  affirmation 
(John  3:7),  "Ye  must  be  born  from  above,"  in  order  to 
enter  the  kingdom,  the  conclusion  follows  as  an  irre- 
sistible and  logical  sequence,  that  all  of  the  infants  in  all 
ages  and  nations  have  already  been  born  from  above,  as 
otherwise  they  could  not  be  members  of  His  kingdom,  as 
He  positively  certifies  they  are.  In  connection  with  these 
Scriptures,  let  us  take  Heb.  2 : 9,  "By  the  grace  of  God 
Christ  tasted  death  for  every  one,"  which  includes  every 
human  being  in  all  ages,  whether  born  or  unborn.  Now 
when  do  you  become  a  human  being?  We  answer:  the 
very  moment  soul  and  body  are  united  and  constitute 
a  personality  you  become  a  human  being,  and  the  great 
and  glorious  vicarious  atonement  which  our  Lord  made 
for  the  whole  human  race  comes  into  availability.  The 
Greek  word  in  this  passage  is  hyper,  which  always  means 
"instead  of,"  and  is  the  very  word  constantly  used  reve- 
latory of  the  vicarious  atonement.  Therefore  there  is 
no  possible  evasion  of  the  conclusion  that,  by  the  won- 
derful redemption  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  are  all  justified 
and  regenerated  in  the  pre-natal  state,  at  the  moment 
of  the  transition  out  of  the  foetal  into  the  personal  ex- 
istence. Unless  you  accept  this  conclusion,  you  consign 
to    the   bottomless    pit    ;very    infant   dying   before   the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  29 

physical  birth.  The  truth  of  it  is,  that  the  physical  birth 
is  not  the  beginning  of  the  personal  existence,  by  any 
means.  Our  Savior's  work  is  perfect,  absolutely  leaving 
out  none;  it  is  normal  economy,  but  including  every  son 
and  daughter  of  Adam's  race,  so  that  Satan  gets  none 
but  those  who,  having  reached  responsibility,  take  the 
bit  in  their  own  teeth  and,  pursuant  to  their  own  free 
agency,  which  grace  never  contravenes,  absolutely  reject 
the  redemption  of  Christ.  Verily,  God's  time  for  every 
soul  to  be  justified  and  regenerated  is  the  very  moment 
it  enters  personal  existence,  and  this  actually  does  take 
place  without  a  solitary  exception. 

There  are  three  things  which  God  never  made :  a  devil, 
a  sinner,  and  a  snake.  He  created  angels,  with  perfect 
moral  freedom  to  obey  or  disobey.  Some  of  them  un- 
fortunately "kept  not  their  first  estate,"  (Jude  6th  verse), 
fell,  and  became  devils  and  demons.  Isaiah  14:12: 
"How  art  thou  fallen,  O  Lucifer,  the  son  of  the  morn- 
ing!" God  created  Adam  and  Eve  upright  and  holy  and 
perfectly  free  to  obey  or  disobey.  Unfortunately  they 
followed  in  the  track  of  Satan  and  lost  their  first  estate, 
becoming  sinners.  He  created  the  Nahash,  the  inter- 
mediate link  between  man  and  brute,  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  all  the  animal  kingdom  and  having  the  power  of 
speech.  Unfortunately  for  him,  Satan  subsidized  him  in 
the  abduction  of  mother  Eve,  and,  through  her,  father 
Adam,  thus  ruining  the  human  race.  In  consequence  of 
this  Satanic  manipulation,  God  pronounced  that  awful 
anathema  on  him,  which  resulted  in  his  transformation 
into  the  loathsome,  venomous,  hissing  serpent.  God  is 
the  very  essence  of  everything  good,  therefore  from  Him 
nothing  bad  can  possibly  emanate. 

A  dogma  is  extensively  preached  throughout  Christen- 


30  Autobiography   op 

dom  which  certifies,  "Once  in  grace,  always  in  grace," 
involving-  the  conclusion  that  if  you  have  ever  had  salva- 
tion you  will  never  go  to  Hell.  When  Satan  goes  into 
the  lying  business,  he  knows  how  to  "do  the  thing  up 
brown."  If  you  will  investigate  the  facts  of  the  case, 
you  will  find  the  very  reverse  of  the  above  dogma  to  be 
true.  Instead  of  there  being  no  backsliders  in  Hell, 
there  are  none  but  backsliders  in  the  dismal  regions  of 
endless  woe.  Oh,  how  the  awful  reminiscence  of  their 
quandam  happiness  in  the  kingdom  of  God  will  haunt 
them  through  all  eternity,  as  they  wail  their  hopeless 
doom.  Let  us  take  a  momentary  invoice  of  Hell's  in- 
mates. We  begin  with  Satan,  the  fallen  archangel,  and 
find  him  none  other  than  an  old  backslider.  Then  we 
take  all  of  the  devils  and  demons  and  find  them  fallen 
angels,  without  a  single  exception,  having  once  been  in 
Heaven,  but  having  failed  to  keep  their  probation. 
Finally  we  come  to  the  millions  of  sinners  and  find,  by 
the  positive  testimony  of  Jesus,  that,  in  their  innocent 
babyhood,  they  were  citizens  of  God's  kingdom.  There- 
fore Hell  was  made  for  none  but  backsliders,  and  never 
will  have  any  other  occupants. 

Then  you  say:  "Brother  Godbey,  since  we  are  all,  by 
the  nominal  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  justified  and  regen- 
erated in  the  pre-natal  state,  why  do  little  children  need 
the  conversion  which  you  say  you  received  when  only 
three  years  old?"  The  Bible  is  the  most  beautiful  and 
glorious  book  in  the  world.  It  is  its  own  expositor.  If 
you  will  give  it  a  chance,  it  will  always  explain  itself. 
Psalm  51 :  5,  "/  was  ska  pen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did 
my  mother  conceive  mc.''  This  is  not  condemnatory  sin, 
but  the  inbred  depravity  which  we  all  inherit  from  Adam. 
A  man  is  poisoned  and  must  die,  if  that  poison  is  not 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  31 

removed  by  a  stomach  pump,  or  in  some  other  way.  You 
do  not  blame  him  because  it  was  in  the  water  he  drank, 
but  did  not  know  it  till  it  was  too  late.  An  enemy  had 
put  it  there.  Adam  is  the  fountain  whence  emanated 
the  stream  of  humanity  which  has  broadened  and  cov- 
ered the  whole  earth.  Satan  poisoned  the  fountain,  and 
we  all  imbibed  it.  Christ  brought  us  the  remedy,  which 
is  free  for  us  all  to  use  and  get  rid  of  the  poison.  That 
remedy  is  His  precious  blood,  which  He  shed  on  Cal- 
vary. The  first  great  work  of  grace  realized  in  human 
experience,  i.  c,  the  beautiful  globe  denominated  conver- 
sion, consists  of  two  hemispheres,  i.  c,  justification,  free- 
ing us  from  condemnation,  and  regeneration,  giving  us 
a  new  heart  and  resurrecting  the  human  spirit  into  the 
life  it  lost  by  sin.  This  justification  and  regeneration, 
which  we  all  receive  by  the  normal  grace  of  Christ  in  the 
pre-natal  transition  out  of  the  fcetal  into  the  personal 
state,  does  not  remove  the  depravity  transmitted  from 
Adam  to  every  human  being,  but  only  conquers  it  and 
gives  grace  to  hold  it  in  statu  quo,  in  due  time  to  be 
utterly  and  forever  eliminated  in  the  great  work  of  en- 
tire sanctification. 

"Now,  Brother  Godbey,  why  do  these  justified  and 
regenerated  infants  need  conversion  ?"  Because  this 
hereditary  depravity  is  still  in  the  heart,  and  when  they 
reach  the  age  of  responsibility  it  will  lead  them  into  sin 
to  an  absolute  certainty,  if  not  converted.  Because,  while 
they  are  born  in  the  kingdom  safe  and  all  right,  so  that 
if  they  were  to  die  they  are  sure  of  Heaven,  yet  they  are 
born  with  their  faces  away  from  God,  turned  toward 
carnal  desires  and  appetites.  Now,  the  thing  to  do  is  to 
instruct  the  little  one,  turn  him  around  and  introduce 
him  to  God,  so  that  he  will  start  out  in  life  Godwardly 


32  Autobiography   op 

and  Heaven wardly ;  whereas,  if  he  undergoes  no  change, 
he  is  certain  to  start  sinwardly  and  Hellwardly.  If  my 
godly  mother  and  preaching  father  had  understood  this 
great  truth,  they  would  have  saved  me  from  years  of 
suffering  in  Satan's  kingdom ;  though,  under  the  blessed 
teaching  and  prayers  of  my  dear  mother,  as  above  speci- 
fied, at  the  age  of  three  years  I  believe  I  did  get  con- 
verted, *'.  e.,  turned  around  and  was  introduced  to  God ; 
yet  I  did  not  know  how  to  abide  steadfastly  in  the  king- 
dom, though  I  never  went  into  sinful  habits.  I  kept 
far  from  profanity ;  I  would  not  use  any  bywords  or 
slang  of  any  kind,  because  I  read  in  my  Bible  that  our 
conversation  should  be  yea,  yea,  and  nay,  nay,  and  any 
more  than  this  cometh  from  the  evil  one.  Though  reared 
in  the  worst  whiskey  state  in  the  Union,  in  my  boyhood 
I  joined  a  Temperance  Society,  excluding  all  beverages, 
and  stuck  to  it.  I  never  tasted  beer  in  my  life,  and  do 
not  know  the  taste  of  any  intoxicants.  Though  reared 
in  the  greatest  tobacco  state  in  the  world,  I  never  used 
it.  I  do  not  know  the  taste  of  coffee;  do  not  use  tea, 
chocolate,  or  any  nervines  whatever.  I  never  knew  the 
number  of  cards  in  a  deck;  never  danced  a  step  in  my 
life,  nor  had  anything  to  do  with  Satan's  fandangoes, 
frolics,  barbecues,  circuses,  nor  theatres.  Though  my 
life  remained  manifestly  unimpeachable,  yet  I  lost  my 
hold  on  God,  became  a  backslider,  and  so  remained  till 
I  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  when  the  Lord  gloriously 
converted  me  and  gave  me  grace  to  ever  afterward  abide 
in  His  kingdom. 

We  have  a  vivid  illustration  of  this  problem  in  the 
lives  of  John  the  Baptist  and  the  Apostle  Paul.  We 
read  in  reference  to  the  former  that  he  was  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  from  his  infancy.    When  Herod  was  killing 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  33 

the  infants  in  and  about  Bethlehem,  in  order  to  get  the 
one  born  King  of  the  Jews,  lest  He  might  supersede  his 
dynasty  on  the  throne  of  Israel,  though  there  was  no 
order  for  this  massacre  to  be  extended  to  Jutta,  the 
home  of  Zachariah  and  Elizabeth,  a  dozen  miles  dis- 
tant, yet,  through  fear  that  the  bloody  edict  might  reach 
them,  they  fled  away  into  the  wilderness  of  Judea  and 
returned  no  more.  Among  the  denominations  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  the  Pharisees  were  orthodox,  the  Sad- 
ducees  were  heterodox,  and  the  Essenes  were  the  holi- 
ness people.  The  latter,  generally  too  poor  to  cultivate 
the  rich  land,  lived  in  the  desert  where  land  was  so  poor 
that  it  was  not  worth  appropriating  and  they  could  use 
all  of  it  they  wanted.  In  this  way  John  the  Baptist,  in 
addition  to  his  sanctified  father  and  mother,  who  "walked 
in  all  the  commandments  and  ordinances  of  the  Lord 
blameless,"  had  the  society  of  all  these  poor,  humble 
holiness  people,  fortifying, him  against  all  worldliness  of 
every  kind.  Therefore,  instead  of  backsliding  from  his 
infantile  justification,  he  moved  directly  on  into  the 
sanctified  experience,  and  then  and  there,  steadfast,  shin- 
ing and  shouting,  awaited  the  happy  welcome  of  his 
thirtieth  year,  the  Jewish  majority,  antecedent  to  which 
no  priest  entered  upon  his  office,  therefore  it  was  ob- 
served both  by  John  and  Jesus. 

Far  otherwise  was  the  sad  experience  of  the  Apostle 
Paul.  Rom.  7:9,  "But  I  was  alive  at  one  time  zvithout 
law"  This  is  a  clear  allusion  to  his  infantile  justifica- 
tion with  which  he  was  born  and  which  he  retained  until 
he  reached  the  age  of  responsibility  and  knew  right  from 
wrong.  That  was  the  time  he  needed  conversion  to 
introduce  him  to  God  and  turn  away  his  face  from  car- 
nal appetites  and  inclinations,  toward  Oed,  spiritual  and 


34  Autobiography   o* 

heavenly  things.  "But  the  commandment  having  come, 
sin  revived  and  I  died,  a)id  the  commandment  which  was 
unto  me  for  life,  the  same  is  found  to  be  unto  death;  for 
sin  having  taken  occasion  through  the  commandment  de- 
ceived me  and  through  it  sleiv  me."  This  inbred  sin, 
which  he  inherited  from  Adam  and  which  was  born  in 
him,  lay  apparently  dead  in  his  heart  like  the  grain  of 
wheat  in  the  bin.  It  is  said  that  wheat  has  been  taken 
from  the  catacombs  of  Egypt  four  thousand  years  old 
and  sown,  has  germinated  and  actually  produced  a  crop. 
Paul  was  a  very  strong  charac.cr  and  had  a  great  mind; 
hereditary  depravity  in  him  was  great  and  strong.  Until 
he  reached  responsbility  it  remained  perfectly  still  and 
could  not  possibly  germinate  and  produce  a  crop  of 
condemnatory  transgression.  So  that  was  the  time  the 
commandment  came,  which  he  unfortunately  rejected 
and  antagonized,  then  and  there  forefeiting  his  infantile 
justification,  falling  under  condemnation  and  becom- 
ing a  backslider.  Oh,  what  a  vivid  contrast  between 
Paul  and  John  the  Baptist!  The  latter  lived  and  died 
under  the  Old  Dispensation,  whose  normal  plan  is  justi- 
fication, but  by  the  wonderful  proleptical  grace  of  God 
he  enjoyed  the  sanctified  experience  all  his  life,  while  the 
former,  his  contemporary,  having  unfortunately  for- 
feited his  infantile  justification  and  become  a  backslider, 
yielding  to  the  normal  trend  of  an  undue  emphasis  on 
works  in  the  absence  of  their  concomitant  grace,  drifted 
away  into  the  legalism  which  has  been  so  fatal  to 
the  Church  in  all  ages.  Inadvertently  he  substituted  in- 
tellect and  education  for  the  Holy  Ghost,  being  envir- 
oned by  the  most  ample  facilities  of  literary  culture  the 
world  could  give. 
Paul  having  graduated  in  the  Greek  colleges  of  Tar- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  35 

sus,  his  native  city,  and  adding  to  his  classical  lore  all 
the  ecclesiastical  culture  the  Jewish  rabbins  could  give 
him,  while  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  the  leading 
Hebrew  theologian  of  the  age,  he  was  promoted  step 
by  step  till  he  reached  a  place  in  the  Sanhedrim,  where 
he  was  honored  by  all  the  dignitaries  and  magnates,  who 
spontaneously  stood  in  awe,  spellbound,  as  they  contem- 
plated his  towering  intellect  enriched  with  the  highest 
culture,  literary,  classical,  philosophical,  theological  and 
ecclesiastical.  He  was  then  honored  by  the  high  priest 
with  the  responsible  office  of  expurgating  the  Church 
of  all  heresies  and  schisms.  Pursuant  to  the  suprem- 
acy with  which  he  was  thus  honored  officially,  he  led  off 
the  loyal  wing  of  the  Church  in  what  he  regarded  as  the 
noble  work  of  suppressing  the  fearful  Nazarene  heresy, 
which,  in  his  judgment,  threatened  the  very  existence  of 
the  Church  in  which  patriarchs  and  prophets  had  lived 
and  died  and  gone  to  Heaven.  Though  God,  in  His 
mercy,  sent  him  the  Holy  Ghost  to  convict  him,  believing 
that  he  was  right  and  that  the  Nazarene  heresy,  if  not 
suppressed,  would  ruin  the  Church,  he  resisted  Him 
heroically,  as  we  conclude  from  our  Savior's  statement 
when  He  shone  down  upon  him  as  he  journeyed  to 
Damascus:  "It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the 
goads."  As  the  ox  kicking  back  against  the  steel  points 
with  which  they  touch  him  to  expedite  his  walk,  thus 
wounds  his  heels  till  the  blood  copiously  flows,  so  Paul 
had  been  determinedly  resisting  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
never  flickered  till  the  glorified  Savior  appeared  to  him 
with  a  brilliancy  eclipsing  the  meridian  sun  in  his  noon- 
day splendor. 

The  solution  of  this  awful  obduracy  on  the  part  of 
great  Saul  of  Tarsus  was  the  fact  that,  though  perfectly 


36  AUTOBIOGR^THY     0? 

honest  and  sincere,  he  was  not  enjoying  spiritual  salva- 
tion, but,  with  all  of  his  zeal  for  God,  he  was  a  mere 
legalist.  I  have  no  idea  that  he  ever  was  reclaimed  dur- 
ing all  of  his  honored  and  influential  ministerial  life  in 
the  Jewish  Church;  not  till  his  wonderful  conversion  in 
the  house  of  Judas,  under  the  ministry  of  Ananias,  the 
normal  fruitage  of  that  transcendent  conviction  which 
flashed  through  him  like  forked  lightnings,  streaming 
down  from  the  unutterable  splendor  of  our  Savior's 
glorified  person.  There  are  multitudes  of  preachers  at 
this  day,  full  of  learning  and  zeal  for  the  Church,  in  the 
succession  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  before  his  gloriious  con- 
version in  Damascus,  who  have  substituted  dead  legal- 
ism for  the  mighty  works  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  are 
always  new,  fresh,  and  bright. 

Oh,  the  incalculable  value  of  efficient  teachers  to 
serve  our  Sunday-schools  as  spiritual  guides  in  the  ex- 
perimental realm !  If  we  only  had  them  in  every  Sunday- 
school,  intelligently  instructed  in  reference  to  the  infan- 
tile relation  to  the  Divine  economy  so  that  they  could 
lead  the  little  ones  of  the  kindergarten  to  the  Savior 
before  they  reach  responsibility,  and  introduce  them  to 
Him  by  prayer,  instruction  and  spiritual  songs,  and  thus 
get  them  intelligently  converted !  This,  with  Sabbat?.^ 
cally  instructing  and  diagnosing  their  spiritual  status, 
so  that,  in  case  they  are  backslidden  during  the  week, 
they  will  get  them  reclaimed,  will  be  their  great  work 
to  keep  them  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  great  trouble 
is  that  our  Sunday-schools,  like  our  homes,  are  radically 
deficient  in  spiritual  diagnosis  of  the  children  and  that 
simple,  plain,  spiritual  instruction  necessary  to  acquaint 
them  with  the  Savior  and  qualify  them  to  walk  with  Him 
day  by  day.     While  I  shall  always  believe  that  I  really 


Rev.  W.  B.  Gosbey,  A.  M.  37 

found  the  Lord  at  the  time  above  mentioned,  when  I  was 
three  years  old,  my  mother,  whom  the  Spirit  used  to  lead 
me  to  God  and  get  me  converted,  for  the  want  of  instruc- 
tion did  not  know  that  I  was  converted,  and  of  course 
I  did  not  know  it  myself.  If  she  and  my  preaching 
father  had  understood  the  beautiful  economy  of  grace 
in  reference  to  the  little  ones,  I  am  satisfied  that  they 
could  have  kept  me  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  do  be- 
lieve that  my  grandchildren,  Emma  and  John  Hill,  of 
ten  and  nine  years  of  age,  both  got  converted  before 
they  lost  their  infantile  justification.  I  have  always 
made  them  a  specialty  in  my  prayers  in  my  almost  per- 
petual absence  and  in  /my  instruction  when  with  them. 
I  find  them  ready  and  able  in  prayer  and  testimony,  and 
clearly  evincing  decisive  growth  in  grace  during  my 
absence  from  them.  Little  children,  even  when  clearly 
converted  and  walking  with  God,  need  constant  atten- 
tion to  keep  them  from  backsliding,  because  of  the  non- 
development  of  their  intellect  which  is  a  powerful  forti- 
fication against  temptation.  They  are  easily  and  quickly 
converted  and  very  liable  to  backslide  before  we  are 
aware.  Consequently  acute  spiritual  diagnosis  is  neces- 
sary on  the  part  of  the  teachers  to  detect  the  lapses  and 
get  them  reclaimed  as  quickly  as  possible.  It  is  the 
nature  of  a  sheep  when  it  gets  out  of  the  pasture  to  stray 
off  and  just  keep  going  farther  and  farther  indefinitely 
until  it  is  captured  by  a  robber  or  devoured  by  a  wild 
beast. 

Mother  Wesley  was  wonderfully  blessed  with  spiritual 
light,  diagnosis  and  an  aptitude  to  teach.  She  not  only 
taught  her  large  family  in  the  school  every  day,  but 
took  each  one  aside  and  interviewed  it  specially  in  the 
interest  of  its  soul. 


38  Autobiography   op 

I  date  my  infantile  conversion  from  this  lesson  which 
my  mother  gave  me  at  the  age  of  three  years.  This  took 
place  before  I  had  reached  responsibility  and  had  an  op- 
portunity to  backslide,  as  in  the  case  of  Paul  (Rom.  7:9), 
where  he  lost  his  infantile  justification  because  he  had 
reached  the  years  of  accountability  and,  instead  of  obey- 
ing, disobeyed  the  Lord's  commandment,  thus  becoming 
a  backslider,  which  is  really  the  status  of  every  adult 
sinner  in  the  world,  as  we  see  it  illustrated  in  the  case 
of  the  Prodigal  Son,  whom  we  count  converted  when  he 
got  back  to  his  father's  house.  But  you  know  he  was 
born  in  that  house  and  never  got  out  till  he  wandered 
away  from  his  father's  house.  A  simple  analysis  of  the 
case  will  convince  you  thoroughly  that  the  return  of 
the  prodigal  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  his  reclama- 
tion. "No  Scripture  is  of  private  interpretation,"  (2  Pet. 
1 :  20) ,  therefore  the  case  of  the  Prodigal  Son  parallels 
that  of  every  sinner  in  the  world,  confirming  the  con- 
clusion that  what  we  call  the  conversion  of  the  sinner 
is  the  reclamation  of  the  backslider.  The  true  and  nor- 
mal conversion  takes  place  before  the  infantile  justifica- 
tion is  forfeited.  In  this  there  is  neither  justification  nor 
regeneration,  for  these  are  received  in  the  prenatal  state 
in  the  moment  of  the  transition  from  the  fcetal  to  the 
personal  status. 

We  have  in  the  case  of  the  Prodigal  Son's  elder 
brother  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  gracious  possibili- 
ties of  retaining  our  infantile  justification.  You  see 
when  his  younger  brother  got  home  and  he  returned  from 
the  field  and  heard  the  rousing  jollification  and  learned 
from  the  servant  that  his  father  had  slain  the  fatted  calf 
and  they  were  all  rejoicing  over  the  returned  prodigal, 
how  he  refused  to  go  in.    He  thought  there  ought  to  be 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  39 

shouting  over  him  instead  of  his  brother,  as  he  had  been 
so  good  and  his  brother  so  bad.  Then,  responsive  to 
the  pleadings  of  his  father  importuning  him  to  come  in, 
he  says,  "Father,  I  have  never  at  any  time  transgressed 
thy  commandment."  This  shows  clearly  that  he  had 
never  disobeyed  him,  consequently  had  never  forfeited 
his  infantile  justification.  If  the  testimony  of  his  inno- 
cence of  which  we  here  read  had  been  incorrect,  his 
father  would  have  corrected  him,  but  as  he  left  that 
declaration  unchallenged,  the  normal  conclusion  is  that 
he  was  correct,  having  never  actually  violated  his  fath- 
er's command,  which  he  would  have  done  if  he  had  for- 
feited his  infantile  justification.  We  see  clearly  that  he 
much  needed  sanctification  to  take  away  the  hereditary 
fret  and  jealousy  out  of  his  heart,  which  he  had  inher- 
ited from  father  Adam,  and  regeneration  does  not  re- 
move, but  only  gives  grace  to  keep  down  the  depravity, 
so  that  it  is  no  longer  permitted  to  rise  up  and  commit 
actual  transgressions.  We  find  this  interview  of  the 
father  with  the  elder  son  continues,  until  the  curtain 
drops,  hiding  the  scene  from  our  vision.  I  believe  the 
elder  son  did  eventually  yield  to  the  importunities  of  the 
father,  came  in,  got  sanctified,  joined  the  jollification, 
and,  in  all  probability,  before  it  was  over,  proved  the 
highest  jumper  and  loudest  shouter. 

After  years  had  elapsed,  when  I  was  a  little  lad,  a 
group  of  my  neighbor  boys  came  along  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, going  on  a  frolicing  excursion.  Not  daring  to  come 
to  the  house,  as  they  knew  I  was  not  allowed  to  dese- 
crate the  Sabbath,  secretly  catching  my  attention  when 
I  was  out  on  the  premises,  they  undertook  to  persuade 
me  to  go  with  them.  I  positively  refused,  and  proceeded 
to  defend  myself  by  apologetic  arguments.     I  was  but 


40  Autobiography   o? 

one  and  they  were  a  party,  therefore  they  all  turned  in 
on  me,  pleading  most  earnestly  and  persistently,  and 
actually  making  speeches  to  convince  me  that  there  was 
no  harm  in  it,  and  that  I  ought  to  go.  They  argued 
with  me  very  sympathetically,  and  told  me  that  I  was 
having  no  fun;  that  it  was  my  right  and  privilege,  and 
that  I  was  making  a  great  mistake  in  living  a  life  so 
restricted  and  scrupulous.  Thus  they  all  combined  and 
talked  me  out  of  countenance.  When  they  saw  no  signs 
of  relenting,  two  of  them  grabbed  me  by  either  arm  and 
carried  me  away  with  them.  We  passed  through  dense 
primeval  forests,  over  high  hills,  and  across  deep  val- 
leys, a  route  strange  to  me,  till  we  reached  the  waters. 
By  the  time  we  got  there  I  was  under  awful  conviction, 
having  yielded  to  the  lashings  of  a  guilty  conscience. 
They  saw  it,  and  all  spread  themselves  to  cheer  me  up 
by  telling  funny  jokes  and  laughing  over  them.  As  I 
had  never  gone  fishing  in  my  life,  of  course  I  had  no 
tackle,  but  they  determined  to  make  a  success  of  their 
convert,  so  fitted  me  out  with  their  best  hook  and  line. 
Meanwhile  the  reaction  of  my  conscience  got  stronger 
and  my  conviction  went  down  deeper,  and  I  became  so 
sad  that  I  could  not  fish,  and  quit  trying.  I  would  have 
gone  home,  but  was  afraid  I  would  get  lost  in  the  woods, 
as  we  had  come  through  the  unbroken  forest  with  not 
so  much  as  a  path.  They  saw  they  had  a  mourner  on 
their  hands  and  did  their  best  to  comfort  me,  but  their 
silly,  carnal  condolment  only  added  to  the  burden  of  my 
sorrows.  I  stayed  with  them  till  they  returned  late  in 
the  afternoon,  when,  passing  by  our  house,  of  course  I 
dropped  off.  By  this  time  the  evening  shades  were  fall- 
ing fast.  I  went  ofi  behind  the  garden  and  oh,  how  I 
wept!     I  confessed  my  sins,  pleading  with  God  to  for- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  U.  41 

give  me  and  promising  never  to  desecrate  the  Sabbath 
any  more,' nor  to  disobey  my  parents,  nor  to  violate  His 
commandments.  While  I  was  thus  pleading,  crying, 
and  praying  with  a  broken  heart,  my  mountain  burden 
rolled  away  ai  .1  I  became  light  and  happy.  I  do  believe 
that  I  was  there  reclaimed  from  the  apostasy  into  which 
I  had  gradually  drifted  after  my  conversion  at  the  age 
of  three  years. 

We  lived  in  a  very  wild,  rough,  ignorant  community 
off  in  the  country,  where  sins  and  follies  ran  riot.  There 
was  no  Methodist  Church  nearer  than  three  miles  and 
preaching  there  only  once  a  month,  and,  as  we  were 
poor  and  had  no  conveyance,  if  we  went  we  had  to  walk. 
The  Baptists  had  preaching  once  a  month  within  one 
mile.  We  generally  attended.  The  Campbellites  preach- 
ed more  in  that  neighborhood  than  all  other  denomina- 
tions combined.  But  they  ridiculed  and  condemned  Holy 
Ghost  religion  with  the  bitterest  denunciations,  pro- 
nouncing it  wild  fanaticism,  and  preaching  nothing  but 
their  water  doctrines  all  the  time  without  exception. 
Of  course  they  were  spiritually  detrimental  rather  than 
helpful.  I  did  not  claim  to  be  a  Christian  at  all,  as  for 
the  want  of  instruction  I  did  not  know  that  the  above- 
mentioned  blessings  were  really  my  conversion  and 
reclamation,  as  I  now  verily  believe.  There  was  no 
Sunday-school  in  all  that  neighborhood,  consequently  I 
never  attended  any.  The  Methodists  at  that  time,  and  I 
may  include  the  Baptists  in  that  country,  though  very 
few  in  number,  the  Campbellites  having  four  or  five 
times  as  many  members  as  all  others  united,  were  really 
humble  and  spiritual,  consequently  preaching  and  talking 
experimental  religion,  and  doing  their  best  to  hold  up 
*he  banner  of  the  cross  and  spiritual  regeneration  against 


42  Autobiography   o? 

the  overmastering  tide  of  Campbcllism,  which  was  the 
popular  religion.  Meanwhile  their  preachers  in  every 
sermon  denounced  and  ridiculed  Holy  Ghost  religion  in 
all  its  forms  and  phases  and  preached  water  baptism  for 
the  remission  of  sins.  I  heard  them  more  than  all  others, 
but  they  did  me  no  good  spiritually,  and  I  honestly  be- 
lieve I  suffered  spiritual  detriment  by  hearing  them.  I 
do  not  think  the  many  preachers  I  heard  of  their  de- 
nomination knew  the  Lord.  I  am  satisfied  they  were 
false  prophets,  misleading  the  people.  In  that  great 
woodland  country  it  was  customary  for  every  farmer  to 
have  a  log  rolling,  in  which  the  neighbors  would  all 
gather  and  pile  his  logs,  so  he  could  burn  them.  They 
also  had  corn  huskings.  I  was  in  these  gatherings, 
heard  their  conversations,  and  saw  them  drinking  whis- 
key, and  found  those  Campbellites  saying  and  doing 
evil  things  which  shocked  me,  though  I  did  not  profess 
to  be  a  Christian,  but  only  a  poor  sinner.  They  claimed 
to  be  the  only  Christians  in  the  world,  condemning  all 
others  and  urging  them  to  come  and  join  them  and  be 
Christians,  boasting  in  their  exclusive  appropriation  of 
the  name. 

I  feel  it  my  duty  as  a  faithful  autobiographer  here  to 
state  that  my  infant  baptism  was,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  a  great  blessing  to  me.  My  parents  often  told  me 
about  it  when  I  was  little,  reminding  me  that  I  was  a 
church  member,  having  been  solemnly  dedicated  to  God 
in  baptism,  therefore  I  must  be  good  and  obedient  to  all 
of  His  commandments.  I  became  a  good  reader  when 
only  six  years  old,  reading  the  Scriptures  with  great  in- 
terest. Finding  the  commandment,  "Children,  obey  your 
parents  in  the  Lord,"  I  remembered  it  with  the  deep  and 
constant  realization  that,  when  I  disobeyed  my  father 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  43 

and  mother  in  anything,  I  was  violating  the  command- 
ment of  God.  The  constant  realization  that  I  had  been 
baptized  and  in  this  way  dedicated  to  God,  rested  on  me 
as  a  potent  incentive  to  obedience,  good  behavior  and 
rectitude.  Baptism  should  not  be  given  to  infants  reck- 
lessly and  improvidently ;  afterward  diregarded,  while 
the  children  are  permitted  to  go  unscrupulously  into  sin ; 
as  in  that  case  it  is  really  taking  the  name  of  the  Lord  in 
vain,  ultimating  with  the  recipients  as  a  hardener  of 
their  hearts  and  wielding  a  detrimental  moral  influence 
over  the  life.  But  when  it  is  used  by  the  parents  with 
due  reverence  for  the  Holy  Trinity  and  with  an  appre- 
ciation of  their  privileges  as  citizens  of  the  kingdom  to 
dedicate  their  offspring  and  all  their  possessions  to  God, 
the  influence  on  the  parents  is  exceedingly  helpful  in 
tightening  up  their  obligations  to  bring  up  the  children 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord;  meanwhile 
it  is  to  the  child  a  perpetual  reminiscence  of  his  relation 
to  God  and  of  the  inallienable  obligations  growing  out 
of  that  relation.  All  children  need  every  possible  legiti- 
mate influence  to  fortify  them  against  the  perpetual 
temptations  to  do  wrong,  arising  from  hereditary  reprav- 
ity  in  the  heart  and  all  sorts  of  external  allurements  in 
the  world.  The  journey  of  life  is  crowded  with  tempta- 
tions from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  our  Savior  assuring 
us  that  "the  saved  are  few,"  therefore  it  is  our  impera- 
tive duty  to  clo  our  utmost  from  the  beginning  to  build 
around  our  children  the  strongest  wall  we  possibly  can 
in  order  to  fortify  them  against  temptation.  In  the  dis- 
charge of  this  duty  we  should  begin  as  soon  as  they  are 
born.  We  are  all  the  creatures  of  education.  Truly  has 
it  been  said,  "Education  forms  the  common  mind;  as  the 
twig  is  bent,  so  is  the  tree  inclined." 


44  Autobiography   op 

I  know  I  am  a  miracle  of  providence  and  grace ;  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  that  I  could  have  dispensed  with  any  of 
His  blessings  without  serious  detriment  and  jeopardy, 
therefore  I  am  full  of  gratitude  for  the  blessings  of  a 
Christian  home,  and  among  them  my  dedication  to  God 
in  infancy.  When  they  told  me  about  it,  my  bark  was 
already  launched  and  the  compass  set,  steering  me  Heav- 
enward. Learning  those  facts,  I  accepted  the  situation, 
and  with  my  earliest  susceptibility  of  recognizing  the  ob- 
ligation, realized  that  the  very  consciousness  that  I  was 
already  given  to  God  in  the  ordinance  of  His  own  ap- 
pointment inspired  my  heart  with  resignation,  reconcili- 
ation, joyful  acceptance  of  the  situation  and  sincere  and 
ardent  resolution  by  the  help  of  God  to  be  true.  The 
great  mistake  of  parents  is  in  neglecting  their  children 
until  Satan  gets  the  lasso  around  their  necks.  Solomon 
says,  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  zvay  he  should  go,  and 
when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  It  is  our  im- 
perative duty  from  the  beginning,  not  only  to  restrain 
but  to  constrain,  lest  the  vicious  predilections,  hereditary 
in  the  heart  of  every  child,  get  the  start  of  us.  Solomon 
again  gives  us  the  benefit  of  the  wisdom  which  God  gave 
him,  when  he  says,  "//  you  beat  a  boy  with  a  rod,  you 
shall  save  his  soul."  I  am  full  of  gratitude  to  God  both 
for  the  restraint  and  constraint  of  the  Christian  home  in 
which  He  gave  me  birth,  and  feel  that  when  I  get  to 
Heaven  the  first  thing  I  will  do  will  be  to  hunt  my  sainted 
father  and  mother  and  thank  them  for  their  faithful 
efforts  to  bring  me  up  for  God,  and  ask  their  pardon  for 
all  the  sorrow  I  ever  gave  them  by  disobedience. 

We  are  living  in  a  dispensation  of  glorious  spiritual 
freedom,  our  Savior  having  broken  every  yoke  of  bond- 
age.    Some  think  we  would  better  not  baptize  the  infant, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbiv y,  A.  M.  45 

but  wait  until  adultage,  so  he  may  choose  for  himself. 
The  great  trouble  is  that  if  we  do  not  bring  into  availa- 
bility every  auxiliary  in  behalf  of  virtue  and  righteous- 
ness, Satan  may  so  capture  the  heart  as  to  forestall  the 
choice  on  his  side.  You  say,  "I  am  afraid  that  if  I  have 
my  baby  baptized,  when  it  grows  up  it  will  be  dissatisfied 
and  want  it  again."  Suppose  it  does;  do  not  hesitate  to 
encourage  a  repetition  of  the  ordinance  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  conscience.  Baptism  was  protracted  from  the 
day  of  Moses  and  repeated  whenever  they  had  contract- 
ed ceremonial  defilement.  Many  a  devout  Jew  was  bap- 
tized with  water  thousands  of  times.  Peter  says  it  should 
be  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience.  Therefore  we 
should  feel  perfectly  free  to  satisfy  our  conscience  when 
truly  enlightened  by  the  Word  and  Spirit. 

I  started  to  school  at  the  age  of  five,  my  three  older 
sisters  merely  taking  me  for  company.  As  I  had  not 
reached  the  scholastic  age.  the  teacher  gave  me  no  atten- 
tion and  I  learned  but  little.  At  the  age  of  six  I  learned 
very  rapidly,  and  became  a  good  reader  of  plain  English 
literature.  In  that  school  our  teacher,  Peter  McFall, 
was  an  elderly  man  and  wore  a  beard,  which  T  hail  never 
seen  before,  because  in  that  day  all  of  the  men  shaved 
off  their  beards.  When  I  saw  him  sitting  in  his  chair, 
his  face  covered  with  beard  dark  and  gray,  T  was 
affrighted  and  trembled  with  awe.  In  a  few  days  after  I 
entered,  seated  by  a  large  boy,  T  saw  him  put  some 
paper  in  his  mouth  and  look  like  he  was  going  to  eat  it. 
We  lived  out  in  the  woody  hills,  where  I  never  had  seen 
much  paper.  T  was  always  full  of  inquiry,  disposed  to 
investigate  everything  with  which  T  came  in  contact,  so 
in  a  low  whisper  I  asked  him  if  he  was  going  to  eat  it, 
feeling  curious  to  know  whether  paper  was  good  to  eat. 


46  Autobiography   of 

That  moment  the  old  teacher  roared  at  me,  scaring  me 
awfully,  as  I  was  already  afraid  of  him,  and  ordered  me 
to  come  to  him.  He  had  a  long  hazel  switch  with  which 
he  whipped  the  children.  He  would  strike  it  down  on  the 
puncheon  floor  like  a  clap  of  thunder  roaring  in  our  ears, 
thus  terrifying  us  into  good  behavior  and  diligent  study. 
As  I  stood  before  him  faint  with  terror,  he  scolded  me 
awfully  for  whispering  to  that  boy  and  told  me  if  I  mis- 
behaved any  more  he  would  take  that  switch  he  had  in 
his  hand,  lap  it  round  me  and  make  the  fur  fly  faster  than 
"old  Yates"  could  make  it  into  hats. 

There  were  no  factories  then  and  hats  were  made  in 
shops,  dispersed  far  and  wide  over  the  country.  "Old 
Yates"  had  his  shop  in  sight  of  that  school-house,  and  we 
children  went  and  looked  at  him  with  utter  amazement, 
as  he  would  put  the  skin  of  a  fox,  raccoon,  rabbit  or  mink 
(which  abounded  in  those  wild  woods),  and  with  his  foot 
on  a  treadle  cause  a  suspended  spring  to  fly  around  with 
great  rapidity,  jerking  all  the  fur  off  the  skin  which  filled 
the  space  with  a  cloud  till  it  settled  down  on  the  platform, 
whence  he  gathered  it  up  and  made  hats  of  it.  I  was  so 
young  then  that  I  knew  nothing  about  joking,  but  be- 
lieved everything  I  heard  spoken,  in  its  literal  sense.  I 
began  to  soliloquize :  If  he  puts  me  through  such  an  oper- 
ation as  "old  Yates"  does  those  fox  skins,  I  certainly 
will  die  meanwhile.  Therefore  I  was  awfully  alarmed 
and  wondered  what  was  to  become  of  me. 

I  had  in  the  school  a  first  cousin,  John  Bishop,  two 
years  older  than  myself,  who  had  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  the  teacher  before  I  entered  the  school,  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  custom,  he  had  chastised  him  severely  with 
that  long  rod  which  he  held  in  his  hand  all  the  time  as  a 
symbol  of  his  authority.     So  at  the  ensuing  playtime,  my 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  47 

cousin  and  I  had  a  most  serious  and  sincere  consultation 
with  reference  to  our  fate.  In  this  mutual  counsel  we 
both  gave  it  as  our  candid  conviction  that  our  lives  were 
in  danger.  He  said  that  he  almost  died  while  the  teacher 
was  whipping  him,  and  believed  candidly  that  if  he  had 
given  him  another  lick  it  would  have  killed  him ;  while  I 
frankly  stated  to  him  that  I  knew,  if  he  did  for  me  what 
he  had  said,  making  the  fur  fly  off  of  me  faster  than  "old 
Yates"  could  make  it  into  hats,  I  certainly  would  die 
under  the  operation.  As  our  parents  had  assigned  us, 
and  would  have  to  pay  if  we  stopped,  the  same  as  if  we 
continued,  we  knew  we  would  have  to  go  on,  but  we  both 
said,  either  to  other,  that  we  were  willing  to  suffer  any 
amount  of  pain  if  we  knew  that  he  would  leave  life  in  us, 
while  we  mutually,  with  the  deepest  sorrow,  decided  that 
our  lives  were  in  danger.  That  was  an  epoch  in  my  life 
whose  effects  have  continued  to  this  day.  I  was  only  six 
years  old  and  continued  to  prosecute  my  education  as 
best  I  could,  then  I  graduated  at  the  age  of  twentyTsix. 
But  that  castigation,  in  which  he  never  touched  me,  but 
scared  me  almost  to  death,  sufficed  amply  for  the  twenty 
years.  I  was  ever  afterward  a  favorite  with  my  teachers 
and  held  up  by  them  as  a  model  student.  They  often, 
while  pleading  with  the  school  to  be  obedient  and  studi- 
ous, called  my  name  and  exhorted  them  all  to  follow  my 
example,  to  my  embarrassment,  as  I  felt  so  unworthy. 


Chaptb*  IT. 

STRIPLINGHOOD. 

An  old  Bible  agent  stopped  with  us  over  night,  as  he 
was  going  around  supplying  the  homes  with  the  precious 
Word.  The  ensuing  morning,  father  said,  "William,  take 
that  young  horse  and  go  with  this  man  to  Clifty  and  show 
him  the  way."  With  thrilling  delight,  mounting,  I  rode 
before  his  carriage  the  five  miles  designated.  When  I 
was  about  to  turn  back,  he  called  me  to  his  carriage  and 
spent  a  few  moments  giving  me  the  best  advice  I  ever 
had,  which  I  received  with  grateful  appreciation,  in 
which  God  actually  used  him  to  confirm  my  call  to  the 
ministry,  at  the  same  time  handing  me  a  Bible  as  a  pres- 
ent. Oh,  what  an  epoch  this  was  in  my  life !  I  never  had 
known  what  it  was  to  own  a  book.  In  all  my  schooling 
I  had  used  my  sister's  old  books,  no  new  one  ever  having 
been  purchased  for  me.  Therefore  the  consciousness  of 
owning  a  book  thrilled  me  with  delight,  especially  as 
that  book  was  the  Bible.  Therefore  I  carried  it  home 
elated  with  joy  and  wrote  my  name  in  it.  Here  let  me 
remind  you  of  the  importance  of  giving  good  books  to 
your  children  in  such  a  way  that  they  will  recognize  them 
as  their  own  personal  property.  Though  my  preaching 
father  had  plenty  of  Bibles,  which  I  frequently  read  with 
great  interest,  the  presentation  of  thi.s  Bible  forever 
marked  a  new  era  in  my  appreciation  of  that  precious 
book.     From  that  hour  I  began  at  the  first  of  Genesis 

48 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  49 

and  perused  it,  using  all  of  my  leisure  moments  in  read- 
ing this  blessed  book.  I  remember  that  very  soon  after 
this  I  was  lying  under  an  apple  tree  reading,  when  a 
neighbor  boy  about  my  age  came  along  and  asked  me 
what  book  I  was  reading.  I  told  him  and  he  asked  me 
what  I  was  reading  about.  I  began  with  creation  and  told 
him  the  wonderful  things  which  I  had  read,  my  excellent 
memory  retaining  it  so  that  I  could  tell  him  the  thrilling, 
inspired  histories  which  were  so  interesting  to  me.  He 
listened  spellbound  and  expressed  the  greatest  astonish- 
ment, saying  that  he  had  never  heard  those  things  before. 
As  there  was  no  Sunday-school  in  all  that  country,  and 
the  preaching  which  was  calculated  to  do  me  good  was 
only  once  a  month,  and  a  three  mile's  walk  over  rugged 
hills  and  creeks  which  were  often  past  fording,  I  gener- 
ally spent  the  Sunday  reading  the  Bible ;  unless  inter- 
rupted, as  was  often  the  case,  by  visitors,  as  all  the  peo- 
ple in  that  country  availed  themselves  of  the  Sabbath  to 
do  their  visiting,  which  is  all  wrong,  unless  we  want  to 
visit  the  sick,  the  poor,  or  the  suffering,  in  the  interest 
of  their  souls  and  bodies. 

When  people  died  and  they  buried  them  about  in  differ- 
ent places,  I  was  always  permitted  to  go  and  visit  the 
scene.  My  father  generally  officiated  in  a  funeral  service 
at  the  grave,  the  coffin's  lid  being  always  removed  and 
the  people  all  invited  to  come  and  look  on  the  face  of  the 
dead  for  the  last  time.  A  near  neighbor  of  ours  always 
made  the  coffins  and  would  come  to  the  interment,  and 
after  people  had  all  looked  at  the  corpse,  he  would  nail 
the  coffin's  lid  down  fast,  as  they  had  no  screws  for  them 
then.  The  sound  of  the  hammer  nailing  up  the  coffin 
roared  in  my  ears  like  thunder,  and  continued  to  haunt 


50  Autobiography   of 

my  childish  memory  night  and  day.     My  father  would 
give  out  that  old  song,  two  lines  at  a  time, 

"Hark  from  the  tombs  a  doleful  sound, 
My  ears  attend  the  cry ; 
Te  living  men,  come  view  the  ground, 
Where  you  must  shortly  lie. 

"Princes,  this  clay  must  be  your  bed, 
In  spite  of  all  your  towers. 
Te  tall,  ye  wise,  ye  reverent  head 
Must  lie  as  low  as  ours. 

"Great  God,  is  this  our  certain  doom 
And  are  we  yet  secure? 
Still  marching  downward  to  the  tomb, 
And  yet  prepared  no  more. 

"Grant  us  the  power  of  quickening  grace, 
To  fit  our  souls  to  fly ; 
Then  when  we  drop  this  dying  flesh, 
We'll  rise  above  the  sky." 

Funerals  were  generally  attended  by  all  the  people  in 
the  neighborhood.  They  always  held  their  service  at  the 
grave.  As  my  father  would  give  out  this  song,  and 
others  of  a  similar  character,  two  lines  at  a  time,  the 
whole  multitude  would  sing  them  so  loudly  and  with  such 
impressive  solemnity  as  actually  to  remind  us  of  the 
judgment  trumpet  blowing.  After  this  they  would  let 
the  coffin  down  into  the  grave  with  ropes,  whose  loud 
rattling  and  creaking  conduced  to  the  trepidation  which 
always  filled  my  heart  on  those  memorable  occasions. 
The  whole  crowd  remained  until  the  grave  was  filled  up. 
The  falling  of  the  clods  on  the  coffin-lid  produced  an 
awful  and  doleful  roar,  striking  panic  to  our  hearts  and 
causing  some  to  weep  aloud. 

My  father  was  always  sent  for  to  visit  the  sick  and  get 
them  ready  to  die.  He  preached  much  at  different  places 
and  God  wonderfully  used  him  in  keeping  a  chronic  con- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  51 

viction  on  me  and  a  perpetual  seeking  of  the  Lord.  If  he 
and  mother  had  understood  the  privilege  of  children  to 
be  intelligently  converted  before  they  reach  responsibility 
and  lose  their  infantile  justification,  and,  like  adult 
Christians,  live  in  communion  and  in  the  enjoyment  of 
justifying  peace  and  soul  rest,  I  shall  always  believe 
that  they  could  have  kept  me  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  but 
at  that  time  everybody  thought  that  we  had  to  grow  up 
sinners  before  we  could  get  converted.  As  above  men- 
tioned, I  am  satisfied  that  after  I  learned  about  God  and 
became  a  sincere  and  earnest  seeker,  I  actually  met  my 
Savior  and  enjoyed  communion  with  Him  and  soul  rest, 
but  I  knew  not  how  to  abide  in  the  kingdom.  Drifting 
away,  I  was  afterwards  reclaimed,  perhaps  several  times. 
As  I  grew  older,  and  the  sphere  of  my  responsibility  en- 
larged, though  in  my  outward  life  rigidly  keeping  the 
moral  law,  my  interior  spirit  drifted  farther  and  farther 
from  God.  Meanwhile  I  never  ceased  to  pray,  really  be- 
ing a  chronic  mourner  all  my  life,  till  I  was  finally  and 
gloriously  converted  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  after  which  I 
never  again  drifted  out  of  the  kingdom.  At  that  time 
there  was  no  very  decisive  change  externally  marked  in 
my  life,  as  it  already  had  been  unimpeachable,  so  far  as 
the  world  could  discriminate. 

In  the  change  of  time  there  has  been  a  great  detrac- 
tion from  the  efficiency  of  death-bed  scenes  and  funerals 
in  facilitating  conviction  and  restraint  from  sinful  re- 
sources. They  were  the  most  potent  agencies  which  con- 
stantly co-operated  in  keeping  conviction  on  me.  As  I 
revert  to  the  scenes  of  my  childhood  and  youth,  it  seems 
that  I  would  have  been  unable  to  resist  the  formidable 
combinations  of  temptations  incident  to  the  juveniles, 
had  it  not  been  for  this  perpetual  series  of  influences  re- 


52  Autobiography   of 

minding  me  of  my  frail  mortality,  the  certainty  of  death 
and  the  irreversible  issues  of  eternity.  Now  opiates  are 
so  administered  to  the  sick,  that  they  are  demented  and 
thus  deprived  of  their  mental  sagacity,  pertinent  to  the 
apprehension  of  their  real  condition.  Then  there  was 
nothing  of  this  kind;  people  all  died  in  their  senses,  either 
shouting  the  triumps  of  faith,  or  wailing  in  the  depths 
of  despair,  both  of  which  are  the  most  potent  influences 
in  all  the  world  to  arouse  conviction  and  perpetuate 
them  on  the  unconverted.  I  then  had  no  Sunday-school 
training  and  heard  but  little  true  Gospel  preaching, 
though  much  on  the  water  salvation  line,  by  men  who 
ridiculed  the  Holy  Ghost  and  His  mighty  works  and 
really  did  their  best  to  drown  out  His  convictions  by 
persuading  people  to  join  their  church  and  receive  water 
baptism,  in  order  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  thus  con- 
tent themselves,  although  utterly  destitute  of  Christian 
experience.  They  ridiculed  such  experience  with  wither- 
ing sarcasms.  But  in  spite  of  all  this,  these  death-bed 
scenes  and  funerals,  which  I  was  permitted  to  attend  al- 
most every  week,  kept  the  momentous  realities  of  death, 
judgment  and  eternity  constantly  moving  in  vivid  panor- 
ama before  my  mental  gaze.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  I  had 
been  withheld  from  these  influences  I  would  certainly 
have  drifted  into  the  seductive  whirlpools  of  vice  and  im- 
morality which  were  all  around  me  and  from  whose 
voracious  powers  God,  in  His  signal  mercy,  so  wonder- 
fully kept  me.  He  not  only  enabled  me  to  pass  over  the 
slippery  paths  of  my  boyhood,  intact  and  unscathed,  but 
to  economize  the  time  in  ways  profitable  to  soul  and  body. 
By  the  blessing  of  God,  enjoying  an  extraordinary 
memory,  with  diligent  industry  and  assiduous  applica- 
tion, I  was  always  enabled  to  stand  at  the  head  of  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  53 

school.  These  statements,  and  others  of  a  similar  char- 
acter, will  probably  disgust  squeamish  people  and  pro- 
voke charges  of  egotism.  N.  B.  Not  of  my  own  choice, 
but  by  the  constraint  of  the  people,  I  am  writing  my  biog- 
raphy, and  must  be  excused  for  rigid  adherence  to 
candor  and  veracity.  As  to  the  charge  of  egotism  which 
this  book  may  provoke,  I  have  one  consolation,  and  that 
is,  I  am  dead  to  egotism  and  everything  else  but  God  and 
His  precious  truth.  Adam  the  first,  with  his  egotism, 
pride  and  vanity,  is  already  dead,  therefore  I  am  invul- 
nerable to  all  criticisms,  however  adverse  they  may  be. 

In  our  schools  they  taught  nothing  but  reading,  spell- 
ing, writing  and  arithmetic,  and  but  little  of  the  latter, 
as  the  teacher  could  advance,  as  a  rule,  only  through  com- 
pound numbers  and  often  stalled  there,  leaving  us  to  con- 
tent ourselves  simply  with  the  elementary  rules.  We 
made  the  spelling-book  a  specialty.  I  committed  it  to 
memory  so  that  I  could  spell  everything  in  it  when  given 
out.  We  would  wind  up  the  week  each  Friday  afternoon 
by  a  spelling  match,  which  was  always  a  time  of  extra- 
ordinary interest;  besides,  we  often  had  these  matches  at 
private  houses  at  night.  On  the  closing  day  of  each 
school  session  they  did  nothing  but  spell  by  memory  in 
the  presence  of  the  great  crowds  who  habitually  attended 
to  witness  this  so-called  "cross  spelling,"  which  was  ex- 
ceedingly magnetic  to  the  parents  of  the  children,  and 
other  visitors.  I  frequently  turned  down  a  whole  school 
and  was  left  standing  on  the  floor  without  a  competitor.  It 
was  very  common  for  whole  schools  to  compete  either  with 
other  in  this  way  on  the  last  day  of  the  session.  I  remem- 
ber one  occasion  of  this  kind,  when  the  school  in  a 
neighboring  district  had  boasted  that  it  was  coming  to 
our  last  day  to  turn  us  all  down.    They  had  some  experts 


54  Autobiography    o* 

claiming  to  know  the  spelling-book  by  memory.  When 
they  arrived  and  got  ready  for  this  competition,  our 
teacher  observed  to  them  that  he  would  give  them  one 
little  boy  to  represent  his  whole  school  on  the  competi- 
tion iloor.  I  do  not  think  I  weighed  more  than  sixty 
pounds  at  that  time.  So  he  called  out  your  humble 
servant  and  the  "cross  spelling"  began.  The  teacher  of 
this  other  school  had  the  book  and  gave  out  where  he 
would,  beginning  with  his  youngest  pupils  and  taking 
them  all  somewhat  in  the  order  of  their  ages  to  the  eldest, 
thus  including  his  forty  scholars.  He  began  with  the 
monosyllables,  so  as  to  suit  the  beginners,  and  the  rule 
was  that  whenever  the  student  missed  a  word,  he  or  she 
sat  down.  So  he  went  on  through  the  whole  spelling-book, 
and  finally  all  of  his  school  was  turned  down  except  one 
big  stout  young  man,  quite  a  bragadoccio,  who  had  come 
making  his  loud  boasts.  Therefore  when  they  all  had 
gone  down  but  him,  he  came  to  the  floor  with  great  pom- 
posity. The  teacher  was  then  giving  out  the  last  section 
in  the  book,  where  the  words  are  spelled  and  defined 
much  after  the  order  of  the  dictionary.  He  gave  out  to 
my  big  competitor  (as  we  had  just  reached  that  point), 
"dun,  to  urge  for  money."  He  spelled  it,  "dun."  Then 
he  gave  out  to  me,  "dun,  a  brown  color,"  and  I  spelled  it 
"dun."  Then  he  gave  out  to  him,  "done,  performed," 
and  he  spelled  it  loudly  and  pompously,  for  the  great 
listening  crowd  to  hear,  "dun."  Then,  without  waiting 
for  the  teacher  to  give  it  to  me,  as  I  knew  he  would  be- 
cause my  competitor  had  missed  it,  I  spelled  it  "done." 
That  wound  up  the  spelling  match  between  the  two 
schools,  as  I  had  turned  down  every  one  of  them,  none 
of  the  balance  of  our  school  having  a  chance  to  take 
part  in  the  competition.    Then  our  teacher  made  capital 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  55 

of  the  matter  by  just  telling  them  that  he  had  lots  of 
scholars  like  the  one  he  had  tried.  The  old  maxim,  "It  is 
better  to  learn  a  little  well,  than  much  imperfectly,"  is 
significantly  true,  and  corroborates  Romans  8:  28:  "All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God 
■with  Divine  love." 

While  my  teachers  were  utterly  incompetent  to  instruct 
me  in  anything  but  rudimentary  English  branches,  God 
made  their  incompetency  a  great  blessing  to  me,  by  giv- 
ing me  time  and  opportunity  to  learn  these  thoroughly, 
which  are  really  the  basis  of  an  English  education.  The 
foundation  of  a  house  is  by  far  the  most  important  part. 
In  the  prosecution  of  an  English  education,  the  spelling- 
book  ought  to  be  committed  to  memory,  and  that  followed 
by  the  dictionary,  with  careful  and  patient  study.  Rest 
assured  that  these  fundamentals  are  by  far  the  most  im- 
portant. Deficiency  in  reading  and  writing  has  its  rem- 
edy in  mastering  the  spelling-book. 

English  grammar  and  geography  were  not  taught  in 
the  schools  where  I  was  reared.  If  a  man  (for  there 
were  no  women  teachers)  could  take  his  students  through 
the  Single  Rule  of  Three,  he  was  pronounced  all  right; 
and  if  he  could  teach  through  the  Double  Rule  of  Three, 
he  was  regarded  extraordinary.  When  a  little  fellow,  I 
got  into  great  trouble  in  the  prosecution  of  my  education 
for  the  want  of  competent  teachers.  My  teacher  would 
stall  in  compound  numbers  and  tell  me  his  head  was 
"wool  gathered"  and  that  he  had  to  go  off  to  the  woods 
to  be  quiet  in  order  to  work  that  sum.  Then  giving  me 
charge  of  the  school,  he  would  take  his  hat  and  go  to  the 
woods.  Some  of  the  scholars  would  watch  until  he  got  off 
out  of  sight  and  keep  watching  for  his  reappearance  and 
during  his  absence  have  a  jolly  time,  paying  no  attention 


56  Autobiography   of 

to  me,  and  I,  finding  that  I  could  not  keep  them  at  their 
books  to  save  my  life,  just  surrendered.  After  awhile 
he  would  come  back  and  tell  me  that  the  sum  had  a  wrong 
answer  and  I  should  just  skip  it.  Uut  he  stalled  so  much 
and  pronounced  so  many  of  them  wrong,  that  I  just 
found  he  could  not  teach  me,  and  I  thought  I  would  re- 
turn home  and  go  to  work  on  the  farm. 

Our  land  was  not  only  poor,  but  covered  by  dense 
forests  of  oak  (black,  white  and  red,  and  hickory  and 
chestnut),  while  the  dogwood,  sassafras,  black  jack,  and 
hazel  bushes,  brambles  and  briars  literally  crowded  the 
earth.  Though  I  was  but  a  little  lad,  as  my  growth  was 
so  slow,  I  was  wonderfully  hardy  and  active,  so  that 
the  neighbors  confessed  that  I  did  more  work  than  the 
stalwart  youths  all  around  me,  who  were  twice  my  size. 
While  they  had  much  more  than  the  usual  amount  of 
physical  strength,  (for  I  was  reared  off  in  the  hills 
among  the  giants),  I  more  than  made  up  by  rising  early 
and  keeping  at  it  all  day  and  losing  no  time.  I  wonder 
now  how  it  was  possible  for  me  to  chop  all  day  and  never 
get  tired.  However,  I  piled  all  the  brush  as  I  went, 
cleaning  up  the  ground  just  ready  for  the  fire,  (as  we 
burned  on  the  ground  all  the  stuff  except  the  good  rail 
timber  which  we  used  in  that  way).  I  just  lacked  the 
physical  ability  to  maul  the  rails  to  fence  the  ground, 
wherefore  my  parents  hired  a  stalwart  to  do  that  part, 
but  I  did  everything  else,  and  when  we  had  the  neighbors 
come  in  and  pile  up  the  logs,  I  burned  off  the  ground, 
then  plowed  and  planted  it.  I  used  to  clear  from  five  to 
ten  acres  during  a  single  winter  between  the  seasons  of 
cultivation.  As  I  had  three  older  sisters,  and  my  next 
younger  brother  was  always  sickly,  and  could  not  help 
me,   therefore  I  had  all  the  work  to  do,  as  my  father  was 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  57 

generally  out  preaching  or  working  at  the  carpenter's 
trade,  and  very  frequently  too  far  off  to  return  home  at 
night.  In  the  cropping  season  he  was  generally  at  home. 
I  cleaned  up  this  brushy  land,  which  required  so  much 
hard  labor,  and  brought  it  into  cultivation,  so  that  we 
had  a  good  living  at  home  and  everything  flourishing 
around  us.  I  was  utterly  surprised  when,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  I  came  into  the  blue  grass  region  to  prosecute 
my  education,  and  saw  there  beautiful,  rich,  level  fields, 
which  are  so  productive  to  the  hand  of  industry.  It 
was  really  fortunate  for  me,  as  mother  and  the  children 
were  dependent  on  me  during  those  years,  that  I  never 
saw  that  beautiful  country  till  after  those  years  of  toil, 
during  which  I  had  taken  for  them  a  productive  farm  out 
of  the  thickets  of  black  jack,  dogwood,  hazel  bushes  and 
saw  briars.  The  land  being  encumbered  with  a  vast 
amount  of  large  timber,  it  was  hard  to  work,  and  the  soil 
being  light,  it  was  soon  exhausted  and  worn  out.  If  I 
had  hitherto  only  seen  the  blue  grass  region,  which  gives 
Kentucky  the  reputation  of  an  earthly  paradise,  and  that 
richly  deserving,  I  do  not  see  how  I  could  have  com- 
mando !  the  patience  and  perseverance  necessary  for 
those  arduous  toils,  in  which  I  acquiesced  not  only  pati- 
ently, but  delightfully.  Oh,  how  wonderfully  God  work- 
eth  all  things  well  to  them  who  love  Him  and  do  His  will ! 
When  I  was  a  very  small  lad,  about  entering  my  teens, 
a  debating  society  sprang  up  in  our  neighborhood,  dis- 
cussing freely  all  subjects  of  general  interest  for  profita- 
ble pastime  and  erudition.  I,  of  course,  went  to  their 
meetings  and  heard  them  deliver  their  speeches,  alter- 
nately discussing  either  side  of  the  controverted  question. 
As  I  listened  to  them,  I  found  myself  soliloquizing:  "I 
should  like  to  do  that,"  and  I  communicated  to  them  my 


58  Autobiography   o? 

desire  to  be  a  participant.  There  was  not  a  solitary  boy 
in  it.  The  participants  were  local  preachers,  civil  officers, 
and  other  mature  men.  They  readily  threw  open  the 
door  for  us  boys,  and  some  of  us,  of  whom  I  was  de- 
cidedly the  smallest  and  youngest,  proceeded  to  take  our 
places  among  the  speakers.  In  the  schools  they  never 
had  any  exercises  of  that  kind  in  that  country,  so  this 
was  my  first.  I  was  charmed  with  it,  becoming  more  and 
more  enamored  and  really  carried  away  by  a  delightful, 
growing  enthuriasm  for  the  forensic  discussion.  As  the 
years  rolled  along,  all  the  old  members  dropped  out, 
leaving  us  boys  to  make  what  we  would  of  the  enterprise. 
We  continued  it,  holding  our  meetings  every  Saturday 
night,  till  at  twenty  I  left  home  to  attend  a  grammar 
school  sixty  miles  distant.  God  made  this  forensic  soci- 
ety a  most  profitable  school  for  me  during  those  years 
which  elapsed  after  I  had  learned  about  all  I  could  in  the 
common  schools  of  that  country. 

During  that  time  a  mathematician  came  into  that  com- 
munity and  opened  a  select  school  in  which  nothing  was 
taught  but  arithmetic.  Fortunately  he  was  very  thorough, 
seeming  to  have  it  all  in  his  memory,  so  that  with  great 
readiness  he  was  prepared  to  solve  all  the  problems  and 
elucidate' them  beautifully.  This  latter  he  did  on  ths 
black  board,  which  had  never  been  used  in  the  common 
schools  the're.  The  name  of  this  adept  arithmetician  was 
Obadiah  Denham,  a  most  excellent  gentleman,  whom 
God  made  a  great  blessing  to  me  educationally,  under 
whose  instruction  I  was  enabled  to  master  the  arithmetic, 
so  that  I  could  teach  it  from  beginning  to  end.  With  this 
progress  in  the  literary  course,  I  conceived  the  idea  of 
teaching  school,  not  only  for  my  own  proficiency  and 
erudition,  but  especially  in  order  that  I  might  defray  my 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  59 

expenses  while  prosecuting  a  thorough  collegiate  educa- 
tion, which  was  the  grand  desideratum  of  my  juvenile 
spirit.  I  had  realized  my  call  to  preach  the  Gospel  from 
my  childhood,  but,  knowing  my  incompetency,  was  deeply 
humiliated  at  the  thought  of  the  undertaking,  and  there- 
fore I  was  anxious  for  every  auxiliary  aid.  For  that 
reason  I  put  out  to  hunt  me  a  school  to  teach,  but  I  every- 
where met  nothing  but  refusal  and  rebuff.  They  said 
that  they  knew  that  I  was  educationally  more  competent 
than  any  of  the  teachers  who  had  served  them,  but  that 
I  just  possibly  could  not  make  the  children  mind  me.  In 
that  country  teachers  were  all  mature  men,  and  generally 
old.  They  thought  the  management  of  children  the  most 
important  consideration  and  that  they  would  not  mind  a 
young  person.  In  my  case,  although  I  was  twenty  years 
old,  I  only  weighed  ninety-tree  pounds  and  had  no  more 
beard  than  a  little  lassie  and  my  face  was  rosy  like  that 
of  a  child.  Therefore  they  everywhere  rejected  me  out- 
right. So  all  the  schools  about  the  country  had  begun 
and  I  was  left  out.  Ere  long  I  found  an  empty  school- 
house,  made  inquiry  for  the  trustees  and  waited  on  them. 
They  responded,  like  all  the  balance,  that  I  could  not 
manage  the  children,  because  I  looked  just  like  a  child 
myself.  Then  I  asked  them,  as  the  house  was  empty,  to 
let  me  just  begin  on  my  own  responsibility,  relieving 
them  of  all  obligation  to  pay  or  help  in  any  way.  To 
this  they  consented,  therefore  gathering  up  a  few  poor 
children  I  began.  So  successful  was  the  work  that  the 
news  went  out  and  students  began  to  come  in  from  all 
directions,  and  so  continued  until  I  not  only  had  all  I 
could  teach,  but  found  it  necessary  to  employ  an  assist- 
ant. When  I  wound  up,  the  trustees  came  and  employed 
me  to  teach  their  school  the  ensuing  year.    After  that  I 


60  Autobiography   of 

never  in  my  life  had  any  more  trouble  to  get  a  school, 
but  applications  crowded  on  me,  more  than  I  knew  what 
to  do  with.  You  can  appropriate  this  to  yourself,  as  it 
clearly  illustrates  the  possibility  of  your  success  on  the 
same  line.  My  collegiate  education  occupied  six  years 
and  cost  me  one  thousand  dollars,  every  cent  of  which  I 
made  by  teaching.  As  I  looked  like  a  little  boy  those 
times,  my  weight  not  exceeding  one  hundred  pounds,  I 
realized  the  necessity  of  paying  for  my  education  by 
mental  rather  than  manual  labor,  as  the  latter  in  that 
country  generally  demanded  so  much  more  physical 
strength  than  I  commanded. 

Following  that  educational  trend,  I  have  somewhat 
neglected  the  spiritual  in  this  biographical  narrative.  I 
had  been  brought  into  the  Church  in  my  infancy  by  the 
dedication  of  baptism,  and,  as  I  believe,  really  converted 
at  the  age  of  about  three  years,  although  afterward  inad- 
vertently, through  childish  weakness,  lapsing  and  getting 
restored  a  time  or  two.  This  restoration  was  not  by  any 
special  ministerial  effort,  as  all  the  preachers  and  Christ- 
ians in  those  days  thought  children  had  to  wait  until 
adultage  before  they  could  be  converted  to  God.  Even 
though  I  had  become  a  confirmed  backslider,  though 
keeping  the  moral  law  diligently  and  living  above  criti- 
cism in  a  religious  sense,  yei  every  stirring  sermon, 
especially  those  I  heard  my  father  and  other  Methodist 
and  Baptist  preachers  give,  as  well  as  every  funeral,  pow- 
erfully renewed  my  convictions,  keeping  me  in  the  atti- 
tude of  a  chronic  mourner,  day  and  night  praying  God 
to  have  mercy  and  save  me. 

In  His  good  providence,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  the  Sat- 
urday night  before  the  fourth  Sunday  in  November,  1849, 
(  if  I  am  not  mistaken  as  to  the  date),  I  heard  that  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbuy,  A.  M.  61 

Baptists  were  having  a  glorious  revival,  which  was  quite 
a  novelty  among  them,  as  this  was  the  first  that  I  recol- 
lect in  that  neighborhood.  So  I  hastened  away  to  their 
meeting.  On  arrival  I  found  the  house  packed  and  even 
crammed.  When  I  entered  the  door  conviction  struck 
me  like  a  cyclone.  It  was  in  every  word  sung,  prayed 
and  preached.  The  preacher  was  a  very  ordinary,  un- 
learned man  but  the  Holy  Ghost  had  him  in  hand  and  he 
preached  with  all  the  Pentecostal  power  and  fire  which 
I  can  conceive  of  their  having  on  that  great  and  notable 
day  when  the  Holy  Ghost  first  fell  on  them  at  Jerusalem. 
By  the  time  he  wound  up,  all  of  my  cables  were  severed, 
my  hold  on  the  willows  broken  and  I  was  ready  for  any 
and  every  possible  Godward  move.  He  threw  the  altar 
open  and  it  was  quickly  crowded,  your  humble  servant 
going  forward.  While  there  were  several  bright,  old- 
style  conversions  (and  among  them  my  cousin,  John 
Bishop,  above  mentioned,  swept  into  the  kingdom  with 
shouts),  yet  my  burden  was  a  mountain  dragging  me 
down  to  the  bottomless  pit  heavier  than  ever  before. 
About  eleven  o'clock,  on  adjournment,  the  preacher  told 
his  brethren  to  take  all  the  mourners  home  with  them 
and  keep  them  through  the  night  and  bring  them  back 
lest  they  might  be  caught  by  the  tempter,  fall  by  the  way 
and  never  reach  the  kingdom,  which  he  assured  then! 
they  were  fast  nearing. 

A  good  Baptist  brother  came,  put  his  arms  around  me 
and  said,  "Boy,  my  house  is  your  home  till  you  get 
religion."  I  was  a  cheap  boarder,  for  I  did  not  eat  a 
bite  or  sleep  a  wink,  but  spent  an  awful,  sleepless  night 
expecting  every  moment  to  drop  into  Hell  I  never  in 
my  life  was  so  glad  to  see  the  day  dawn  as  when  it  came 
peering  in  through  the  clapboard  roof  of  that  log-house 


62  Autobiography  o? 

up  in  whose  garret  I  was  bedded.  I  arose  and  dressed, 
ate  nothing-,  but  went  to  meeting,  finding  the  house 
packed  and  jammed  with  women,  and  the  men  all  out- 
of-doors,  except  a  few  saints  who  crowded  in  the  nooks 
and  corners.  Therefore  in  my  natural  timidity  I  de- 
clined to  make  an  effort  to  squeeze  in.  Outside  they 
were  talking  everywhere,  and  their  silly,  foolish  jesting, 
mingled  with  ribaldry,  obscenity  and  profanity,  grieved 
my  soul  so  terrifically  that  I  was  constrained  to  run  away, 
as  I  found  their  society  absolutely  intolerable.  I  fled  to 
the  woods  and  wandered  on  through  the  primeval  forest, 
that  mountain  getting  heavier  incessantly,  till  I  fell  be- 
neath my  burden,  which  I  could  no  longer  bear.  There 
protrate  on  the  ground,  crying  to  God,  soliloquies  raced 
through  my  mind :  "Is  it  possible  that  after  my  baptism 
in  my  infancy  and  my  good  moral  life,  which  I  have 
lived  from  the  cradle,  yet  Hell  is  my  doom?"  The  real 
trouble  with  me  was  self-righteousness ;  I  was  uncon- 
sciously depending  on  my  good  works,  church  member- 
ship, preaching  father  and  sainted  mother,  and  the  pray- 
ing Christians  to  save  me.  Here  I  reached  a  crisis  and 
a  culmination.  A  panorama  passed  before  me,  in  which 
I  saw  all  of  those  Godly  people  pass  away.  The  soliloquy 
came  back,  my  hopes  all  fled  and  my  doom  was  sealed. 
So  I  reached  the  point  where  Calvinistic  theology  very 
beautifully  says,  "Our  justification  supervenes,  i.  e., 
when  we  utterly  surrender  all  of  our  own  resources  and 
confess  judgment  against  ourselves."  Thus  my  soliloquy 
proceeded :  "O  God,  I  am  a  wretched,  lost  sinner,  all 
my  works  of  righteoussnes  are  filthy  rags,  loathsome 
and  stenchy  in  Thy  sight ;  and  if  Thou  dost  leave  me  to 
drop  into  Hell,  it  is  all  right.  I  never  did  deserve  any- 
thing else."    At  that  moment  I  reached  an  epoch  which 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  63 

f  never  can  forget.     That  mountain  burden  rolled  away 
and  I  found  myself  leaping  for  joy. 

"Hard  was  my  toil  to  reach  the  shore, 

Long  tossed  upon  the  ocean ; 
Above   ine  was   the  thunder's   roar, 

Beneath  the  wave's  commotion. 

"Panting  and  fainting  as  for  breath, 

I  knew  not  help  was  nigh  me, 
I  cried,  Oh,  save  my  soul  from  death, 

Immortal  Jesus,  saves  me ! 

"Then   quick  as  thought  I   felt  Him  mine, 

My  Savior  stood  before  me; 
T  saw  His  brightness  round  me  shine, 

And  shouted  Glory!   Glory! 

"Oh,  hallowed  spot,  oh,  sacred  hour, 

When  love  Divine  first  found  me; 
Wherever   falls  my  distant  lot. 

My  soul   shall   linger  round  thee. 

"And  when  I  rise  from  the  vile  world 

Up  to  my  home  in  Heaven, 
Down  will   I   cast   mine  eyes  once  more, 

Where  I  was  first  forgiven." 

That  wood  was  soon  afterward  cleared  up  and  turned 
into  a  corn-field,  but  my  heart,  in  all  my  wandering? 
these  lifty-seven  years,  three  times  travelling  in  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  and  once  around  the  world,  has  ever 
turned  back  to  that  hallowed  spot,  dearest  to  me  in  all 
the  earth.  I  verily  expect  to  remember  it  through  all 
eternity.  There  the  battle  of  long  and  weary  years 
between  faith  and  doubt,  grace  and  sin,  Christ  and  Satan 
Heaven  and  Hell,  culminated  in  glorious  victory  for  my 
poor  soul. 

I  was  converted  in  the  Baptist  meeting,  where  nothing; 
was  said  about  sanctification.  Indeed,  the  Methodists  ar 
that  time  were  silent  on  it.  My  conversion  was  clearly 
witnessed  to  by  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit,  who  gave  me 


64  Autobiography   op 

power  in  public  prayer  to  the  delight  and  astonishment 
of  the  people,  who  shouted  the  praises  of  God  for  the 
blessings  which  descended  on  them  during  my  prayers; 
meanwhile  I  was  faithful  in  duty  and  always  ready  to 
give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  was  within  me,  with 
meekness  and  fear.  But  I  soon  found  an  aching  void 
within  which  the  world  could  never  fill.  Painfully  real- 
izing that  I  needed  something  more  to  satisfy  my  longing 
soul,  I  talked  to  preachers  and  pilgrims,  who  told  me  not 
to  be  discouraged,  because  it  was  the  inward  conflict 
which  they  all  had,  and  that  I  must  endure  it  during  this 
life. 

Reading  the  old  Methodist  books,  I  found  much  on 
sanctification  as  a  second  work  of  grace,  but  in  the  ab- 
sence of  a  teacher  or  even  a  witness  to  it,  I  did  not  know 
how  to  seek  it.  Our  country  was  all  flooded  with  water 
religion,  preached  by  the  Campbellites  everywhere,  who 
make  it  a  condition  of  pardon  and  salvation.  As  they 
constantly  fought  experimental  religion,  which  I  knew 
to  be  true,  because  I  had  it,  I  had  no  inclination  to  fall 
in  with  them;  but  the  Baptist  brethren,  with  whom  I  got 
converted,  practiced  immersion,  and  among  all  there  was 
so  much  said  about  it,  that  I,  being  ignorant  and  deeply 
solicitous  to  be  right,  and  knowing  I  needed  something, 
therefore  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  thing  for  me 
to  do  was  to  be  immersed.  Consequently  I  called  on  a 
Methodist  preacher  to  favor  me  with  the  ordinance.  I 
found  him  very  unwilling  and  disposed  to  argue  me 
out  of  it.  I  told  him  it  was  not  worth  while  to  spend 
time  over  it,  because  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  receive 
it.  My  father  was  a  preacher  and  he  was  satisfied  I 
would  be.  Therefore,  loathe  to  give  up  the  Methodist 
preacher,  as  he  felt  sure  I  would  go  to  the  Baptists,  he 


Rev.  VV.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  65 

consented  to  accommodate  me,  giving  me  the  time  and 
place  when  he  was  going  to  immerse  some  people,  and 
charging  me  to  tell  no  one,  but  to  come  along  and  fall  in 
with  the  candidates  and  he  would  wait  on  me  along  with 
the  balance.  At  that  time  the  Methodist  preacher  had 
conscientious  scruples  about  rebaptizing  people ;  they  are 
not  so  particular  now.  Consequently  I  came  at  the  time 
appointed  and  he  immersed  me  with  the  others.  I  received 
it  in  good  faith,  hoping  that  it  would  supply  the  deficiency 
which  I  realized  in  my  experience,  but  in  this  I  was  mis- 
taken ;  I  soon  found  the  same  aching  void  within. 

Four  years  from  that  time  I  began  to  preach  in  the 
Methodist  Church,  and  have  been  at  it  these  fifty-three 
years.  I  preached  fifteen  years  under  a  woe,  feeling, 
"Woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel."  Nineteen 
years  after  my  conversion,  in  December,  1868,  the  Lord 
gloriously  sanctified  me,  giving  me  that  wonderful  satis- 
fying portion  which  I  sought  in  immersion  and  a  thous- 
and other  ways,  but  finally  found  when  I  gave  up  every- 
thing else  and  took  Jesus  for  everything  in  time  and  in 
eternity.  I  have  always  beert-very  grateful  to  Brother 
William  Johns,  my  neighbor  boy  about  ten  years  my 
senior,  for  immersing  me  at  my  request.  I  have  always 
been  glad  that  under  the  circumstances  I  did  satisfy  my 
own  conscience,  doing  the  best  I  could.  I  took  it  for  the 
full  satisfaction  of  my  longing  soul,  which  is  but  another 
name  for  sanctification,  but  found  to  my  sorrow  that  it 
could  not  do  it. 

In  the  preceding  paragraph  I  made  allusion  to  our  for- 
ensic club,  with  which  I  identified  myself  when  a  small 
lad.  During  the  seven  years  which  transpired  after  1 
had  learned  about  all  I  could  in  the  common  schools  of 
that  country,  as  above  mentioned,  God,  in  His  providence, 


66  Autobiography   o* 

sent  that  able  mathematician  into  our  community,  who 
taught  nothing  else,  making  such  a  specialty  that  I  fell 
in  with  him  and  enjoyed  the  full  benefit  of  his  instruc- 
tions. I  reached  a  state  of  proficiency  which  qualified  me 
to  teach  the  arithmetic  through  and  through,  but  I  had 
never  been  to  a  grammar  school,  nor  to  a  place  where  I 
could  study  any  of  the  collegiate  course.  I  spent  these 
intervening  years  cleaning  up  my  father's  farm,  which 
had  all  been  worn  out  (as  the  soil  in  that  country  is  so 
very  light,  except  the  woodlands),  and  getting  the  family 
in  really  comfortable  temporal  environments. 

All  this  time  I  was  sticking  close  to  my  debating 
society,  which  we  held  in  school-houses  responsive  to 
the  people,  who  were  constantly  calling  for  it.  When  the 
old  members  dropped  out,  soon  after  I  entered  it,  I  am 
sure  that  it  owed  its  perpetuity  to  my  humble  instru- 
mentality. The  retirement  of  those  local  preachers  and 
civil  officers  who  launched  it,  was  much  in  favor  of  us 
boys,  as  it  gave  us  all  the  time.  I  was  only  able  to  hold 
three  of  the  boys  permanently  identified  with  it.  There- 
fore we  four  constituted  two  couplets,  as  we  paired  off 
every  Saturday  evening  on  the  controversy  floor.  Two 
of  them,  as  a  rule,  spoke  but  a  few  minutes,  leaving  the 
bulk  of  the  time  for  the  other  one  and  your  humble 
servant,  who  generally  spoke  from  thirty  to  fifty  min- 
utes, our  subjects  involving  historic  research.  There- 
fore we  were  constantly  reading  history  in  order  to  pre- 
pare for  those  discussions,  and  of  course  this  was  the 
very  thing  for  our  edification.  In  my  youth  I  was  a 
great  night  student,  competent  to  get  along  with  much 
less  sleep  than  now.  During  those  years  I  worked  hard 
all  day  and  read  until  midnight,  often  by  firelight,  as  we 
were   poor,   and   in   that   way,   improvidently  and   inad- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  67 

vertently  damaged  the  good  eyes  Wiuch  God  gave  me, 
which  never  knew  any  flicker  till  I  had  passed  my  twen- 
tieth year.  Having  been  a  good  reader  from  the  age  of 
six,  during  those  seven  years  of  my  toiling  farm  life  1 
was  a  constant  reader  of  history,  acquiring  the  knowl- 
edge which  I  utilized  in  my  weekly  speeches  in  our 
forensic  club.  I  would  study  all  the  week  preparing  my- 
self to  discuss  some  question  which  required  informa- 
tion, and  would  therefore  superinduce  the  investigation 
of  history. 

In  our  speeches  we  constantly  utilized  the  blessed 
Word  of  God,  as  its  moral  precepts  were  always  perti- 
nent, and  when  arranging  the  field  of  history,  we  con- 
stantly appealed  to  the  Bible  whose  sacred  testimony 
appertaining  to  the  issues  involved  was  always  unim- 
peachable. Therefore  our  historic  argument  included 
the  sacred  as  well  as  the  secular;  consequently  our 
duties  in  the  club  kept  us  incessantly  reading  the  Bible 
as  well  as  secular  history. 

This  was  a  most  important  period  in  my  life;  as  the 
manual  labor  developed  my  muscles  and  gave  me  an 
iron  constitution,  which  has  been  infinitely  valuable  to 
me  during  these  fifty-three  years  of  constant  preaching 
and  teaching.  We  four  regular  speakers  frequently 
found  our  number  augmented  by  others  who  incidentally 
came  in  and  were  willing  to  take  part  in  the  discussion, 
a  privilege  which  we  always  granted.  The  people  gave 
us  splendid  crowds  during  those  whole  seven  years  and 
listened  with  untiring  appreciation.  We  generally  began 
by  six  or  seven  and  always  held  on  till  eleven  or  twelve 
o'clock.  To  me  it  was  an  oratorical  school  of  infinite 
value,  giving  me  colloquial  discipline,  which  has  accom- 
panied me  through  life,  rendering  me  always  ready  for 


68  Autobiography   ev 

extemporaneous  speaking.  Vast  quantities  of  the  infor- 
mation, especially  historic,  which  appears  in  my  writings, 
I  received  during  those  years  of  hard  toil,  while  follow- 
ing the  plow  amid  roots  and  rocks  all  day  and  reading 
about  half  of  the  ensuing  night.  Digesting  it  as  I  re- 
volved it  over  and  over  in  my  mind  the  ensuing  day, 
while  holding  the  plow  handles  or  wielding  the  ax  or 
hoe,  I  was  getting  it  all  into  shape  so  as  to  spread  out 
before  the  people  an  intellectual  feast  the  ensuing  Sat- 
urday evening. 

N.  B.  "All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God  zvith  Divine  love."  This  includes  the  fail- 
ure and  feebleness  of  my  eyes.  The  first  flicker  of  my 
eyes  occurred  at  twenty-one.  Then  I  had  my  collegiate 
education  before  me,  which  of  course  demanded  vast 
ocular  labor.  During  its  entire  prosecution,  for  the 
lack  of  eye  power,  I  would  have  to  content  myself  with 
a  single  reading  of  the  lesson,  looking  on  the  book  and 
taking  it  into  my  mind,  then  looking  away,  fixing  it  in 
my  memory  and  resting  the  eyes.  But  when  I  came  into 
the  recitation  room,  I  always  knew  the  lesson,  while 
other  young  men  told  me  they  read  it  over  a  dozen  times 
and  then  failed  in  the  recitation.  The  failure  in  my 
eyes  superinduced  the  necessity  of  substituting  memory 
for  eye  power;  which  is  the  very  thing  to  develop  the 
memory  in  largest  capacity. 

T  was  so  fond  of  reading,  even  from  my  early  child- 
hood, that,  if  my  eyes  had  not  failed,  I  certainly  would 
have  become  an  insatiable  bookworm,  and  have  spent  my 
life  taking  in  without  giving  out.  This  is  a  dangerous 
attitude.  The  Dead  Sea  takes  in  the  River  Jordan  and 
other  waters,  but  gives  out  not  a  drop.  If  you  would 
not  become  a  Dead  Sea,  you  had  better  be  a  faithful 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  69 

dispenser  of  physical  benefaction,  intellectual  erudition 
and  spiritual  pabulum,  to  all  you  meet  in  this  proba- 
tionary pilgrimage.  This  is  my  forty-eighth  book. 
These  books  have  gone  out  to  the  number  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  copies  and  millions  are  feeding  on  them. 
If  my  eyes  had  enabled  me  to  read  other  people's  book 
ad  libitum,  I  do  not  believe  I  ever  would  have  been  a  book 
writer.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  I  do  not  write  the 
books  of  my  authorship,  could  not  for  the  want  of  eye 
power.  I  dictate  them  all  to  amanuenses.  I  have  no 
doubt  but  that  I  have  actually  done  vastly  more  good 
in  the  world  with  these  enfeebled  eyes  than  in  case  they 
had  remained  strong  and  penetrating,  like  those  of  the 
eagle  centered  upon  the  noonday  sun,  whither  he  wings 
his  upward  flight. 

Let  me  exhort  you  to  sink  so  profoundly  into  the 
sweet  will  of  God  that  you  will  hail  all  of  His  permissive 
providences  as  blessings,  even  though  they  may  be  so 
disguised  that  uncircumcised  eyes  will  mistake  them  for 
curses.  I  hope  your  faith  is  so  athletic  and  doubtless 
that  you  actually  see  God  in  everything.  Rest  assured, 
if  you  are  really  lost  in  His  will  He  will  make  your 
darkest  adversities  your  brightest  sunbursts.  The  axiom 
of  Jesus  during  His  ministry  was,  "Be  it  unto  you  ac- 
cording to  your  faith;"  therefore  when  the  darkest 
clouds  envelop  your  sky,  remember  their  upper  side  in 
which  the  sun  is.  shining  is  white  as  snow.  The  truth 
of  the  matter  is  that  neither  men  nor  devils  can  do  any- 
thing to  God's  people  without  permission,  and  that  per- 
mission transforms  the  most  terrible  calamities  into 
blessings.  My  life  work  is  in  the  use  of  the  eye;  my 
greatest  physical  ailment  in  my  whole  life  has  been  this 
ocular  feebleness  and  failure.     Yet  when  I  see  hoMr  God 


jo  Autobiography   of 

took  me  from  wearing  out  my  brain  reading  other  peo- 
ple's books  to  the  glorious  privilege  of  dictating  all  of 
these  books  for  others  to  read — an  honor  and  benedic- 
tion of  which  I  never  dreamed — oh,  what  unspeakable 
goodness  and  mercy  were  thus  bestowed  on  unworthy 
me! 


Chapter  III. 

YOUTH. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  you  see  how  God,  through 
my  indefatigable  perseverance,  gave  me  my  first  school 
to  teach  at  the  age  of  twenty,  when  I  only  weighed 
ninety-three  pounds  and  looked  like  a  little  boy,  so  very 
juvenile,  and  beardless  as  a  lassie.  After  the  first  school, 
I  never  had  any  trouble  to  get  employment  whenever  I 
wanted  it,  and  commanded  splendid  wages.  Having 
taught  my  first  school  at  the  age  of  twenty,  then  I  wanted 
to  go  away  to  a  grammar  school  and  learn  English 
grammar,  of  which  I  was  utterly  ignorant.  But  as  it 
was  universally  customary  in  that  country  for  the  boys 
to  work  for  their  parents  till  they  were  twenty-one,  when 
they  reached  majority  and  received  their  freedom,  I  was 
actually  too  conscientious  to  cheat  my  parents.  I  was 
not  twenty-one  till  the  third  day  of  the  following  June, 
therefore  I  sold  my  horse  which  I  had  j-aised  on  the 
farm,  or  rather  which  my  father  had  given  me,  for 
ninety  dollars  and  hired  a  stout  young  man  to  take  my 
place  on  my  father's  farm  till  the  day  of  my  majority. 
This  gave  me  four  months  to  attend  the  grammar  school, 
where  I  made  grammar  my  specialty,  devoting  all  of 
my  time  to  the  study  of  it,  and  actually  mastered  it,  so 
that  I  could  teach  it  and  never  did  recite  it  any  more. 
Having  reached  majority  and  become  my  own  man,  ac- 
cording to  the  civil  law,  I  never  again  returned  to  labor 

71 


72  Autobiography   o* 

on  my  father's  farm,  but  devoted  all  of  my  time  to  teach- 
ing and  attending  college.  God  gave  me  wonderful 
physical  hardihood,  and  I  was  an  untiring,  assiduous  stu- 
dent, the  teachers  in  every  school  certifying  that  I  ac- 
complished more  in  the  time  than  any  other  young  man 
they  ever  knew. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one  I  entered  upon  the  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek.  I  carried  my  books  with  me  every- 
where I  went  and  committed  them  to  memory  so  I  could 
recite  them  from  beginning  to  end.  Though  I  was  then 
a  preacher,  I  was  not  sanctified,  and  had  a  Napoleonic 
ambition.  One  day  when  we  recited  our  Latin,  the 
teacher  assigned  us  one-half  of  the  conjugation  of  the 
active  verb  "amo"  for  a  lesson,  at  the  same  time  observ- 
ing that  when  he  was  a  student  he  took  a  whole  verb  for 
a  lesson.  I  spoke  out,  "I  can  learn  as  big  a  lesson  as  you 
or  any  other  man."  Then  he  assigned  us  the  whole 
conjugation  to  commit  to  memory.  When  the  recita- 
tion rolled  round  the  next  day,  I  knew  every  word  of  it, 
while  all  the  balance  of  the  class  so  failed  that  he  re- 
assigned it  to  them  for  the  next  day.  We  had  been 
studying  for  about  four  or  five  months,  when  he  took 
me  out  of  the"  class  of  beginners  and  put  me  in  the  next 
highest  class,  which  had  studied  it  one  year  before  I 
got  there.  It  was  not  long  before  I  stood  at  the  head 
of  that  class.  I  did  not  progress  so  rapidly  in  Greek, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  the  teacher,  while  quite  proficient 
in  Latin,  was  not  so  thorough  in  Greek.  It  was  not 
long  until  I  left  that  college  and  went  to  another,  at 
Georgetown,  Ky.,  which  was  old  and  very  thorough.  I 
spent  six  years  in  the  prosecution  of  my  collegiate  edu- 
cation, taking  the  entire  regular  classical  course,  finally 
graduating  June   30,    1&59,    and    receiving    my    Latin 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  73 

diploma.  It  cost  me  one  thousand  dollars,  every  cent 
of  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  I  made  by  teaching, 
as  my  dear  father  and  mother  were  not  able  to  give  me 
any  financial  help. 

On  our  graduating  day,  when  we  twenty  young  men 
delivered  our  orations  and  received  our  diplomas,  six  of 
us  were  preachers  and,  sad  to  say,  about  six  drunkards, 
and  the  other  eight  gentlemen  of  correct  lives.  During 
those  six  years  I  saw  many  young  men  go  out  from  col- 
lege, not  only  without  salvation,  but  on  the  slippery 
steeps  of  dissipation  which  precipitate  their  incumbents 
into  the  bottomless  pit.  I  have  been  praising  the  Lord 
all  my  life  for  a  father  and  mother  who  were  too  poor 
to  give  me  money  on  which  to  dissipate.  The  greatest 
intellectualist  in  our  class,  a  younger  man  than  myself, 
has  already  gone  to  a  drunkard's  grave,  leaving  the 
world  as  he  lived,  utterly  regardless  of  God.  If  my  par- 
ents had  been  rich,  I,  like  my  classmates  and  college 
chums,  would  have  been  exposed  to  those  awful  tempta- 
tions which  plunged  them  in  ruin  and,  as  we  fear,  eter- 
nally. Oh,  what  a  mistake  Christian  parents  make  to 
pile  up  money  for  their  children  when  they  are  so  likely 
to  use  it  to  pay  their  way  to  Hell !  What  a  glory  if  they 
had  only  given  that  money  to  evangelize  one  thousand 
millions  of  poor  heathens  through  the  ages  sitting  in 
darkness  and  in  the  shadow  of  death.  I  do  believe  that 
I  will  praise  God  forever  in  Heaven  for  giving  me  par- 
ents who  never  had  one  dollar  to  give  me  to  defray  my 
expenses  to  Hell.  But  they  did  give  me  a  patrimony 
which  outshines  all  the  gold  that  ever  glittered,  and  all 
the  diamonds  that  ever  sparkled,  and  all  the  rubies  that 
ever  radiated.  That  inheritance  is  God's  precious  Word 
and  the  testimony  of  His  glorious  redeeming  grace  in 


74  Autobiography   o* 

their  own  hearts ;  and  an  humble  Christian  home,  where 
God  was  feared,  loved,  and  obeyed.  Well  does  Solo- 
mon say,  "Wisdom  is  better  than  riches." 

I  much  regret  the  deprivation  of  a  classical  education 
which  has  supervened  in  the  last  forty  years.  The  pro- 
portion of  students  in  colleges  now  prosecuting"  the 
regular  classical  course  is  much  smaller  than  it  was  dur- 
ing the  years  of  my  college  life.  This  is  in  harmony 
with  the  general  trend  of  the  age  to  superficialism,  which 
is  manifest  in  every  department  of  practical  life  at  the 
present  day;  e.  g.f  in  architectural,  for  while  the  build- 
ings of  all  sorts  are  vastly  more  fastidious,  showy,  and 
ornamental,  they  are  lamentably  deficient  in  solidity,  sub- 
stantiality, and  durability.  This  you  will  observe  in 
every  ramification  of  the  arch.  We  are  constantly  con- 
strained to  deplore  this  tendency  in  the  spiritual  realm, 
where  we  observe  it  most  obvious  and  significant 
throughout,  i.  e.,  superficial  conviction,  unsubstantial 
conversions  and  unsatisfactory  sanctifications ;  superficial 
professions  all  along  the  line  of  evangelistic  work. 

Especially  do  we  observe  this  superficialism  in  the 
educational  realm.  Learning  in  all  departments  has 
caught  the  impatient  fugitive  spirit  of  the  age,  dashing 
through  with  all  possible  expedition,  rushing  to  a  super- 
ficial graduation,  reaching  the  end  prematurely  and  going 
out  into  the  world  professionally  ready  for  business, 
when  the  diploma  is  but  a  farce  and  a  burlesque.  The 
old  style  four  years'  course,  Freshman,  Sophomore, 
Junior  and  Senior  classes,  which  had  long  prevailed  in 
all  the  regular  colleges,  is  about  given  up  and  super- 
seded by  irregular  classification,  in  view  of  expediting 
the  graduation.  It  is  high  time  for  us  to  halt  and  heed 
the  apostle  James,  "Let  patience  have  her  perfect  work." 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  75 

We  hear  them  say,  "I  must  finish  my  education,  get  nut 
preaching,  or  off  into  my  missionary  field."  There  is 
always  a  wide  open  door  for  all  to  preach  who  will  while 
they  are  prosecuting-  their  education.  Here  we  have 
great  Cincinnati,  with  her  suburban  cities,  comprising 
half  a  million  people,  open  wide  for  evangelistic  work, 
and  you  find  it  so  everywhere ;  therefore  there  is  no 
apology  for  losing  time  in  response  to  your  call  to  preach. 
If  you  ever  succeed  in  this  life,  you  must  learn  the  great 
problem  of  harmonizing  perpetual  study  with  incessant 
labor,  in  the  field  of  disinterested  philanthropy  to  which 
you  are  called.  The  most  blessed  collegiate  education 
you  will  ever  receive,  instead  of  winding  up  your  stu- 
dent life  only  begins  it,  thus  qualifying  you  to  dispense 
with  the  constant  help  and  guidance  of  teachers,  paddle 
your  own  canoe  across  the  stormy  river  of  probationary 
life  and  secure  a  safe  landing  on  the  golden  shore  of  a 
glorious  immortality.  If  you  are  ever  a  success  in  any 
department  of  intellectual  labor,  you  must  be  a  student 
all  your  life,  surviving  the  migratory  abstractions  of 
transitory  allurements  and  reaching  that  concentration  of 
mentality  which  will  make  you  an  incessant  student. 

(1)  You  need  a  classical  education  to  qualify  you  to 
successfully  study  the  blessed  Bible.  This  is  obvious 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  never  written  in  your  vernac- 
ular nor  that  of  any  other  person  now  loving  on  the 
earth,  but  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek,  which  are  now  dead 
languages.  God,  in  His  providence,  after  the  Scriptures 
were  written  in  those  beautiful  and  learned  languages, 
took  them  out  of  the  world,  so  that  people  could  not 
corrupt  them,  as  they  do  every  spoken  language.  .  But 
we  have  this  grand  thesaurus  of  God's  precious  truth 
revealed  for  the  salvation  of  a  lost  world,  to  which  we 


76  Autobiography    of 

can  go  and  drink  of  the  water  of  life,  limpid  and  pure, 
as  it  leaps  from  the  fountain,  gushing  out  beneath  the 
throne  of  God.  You  can  never  drink  at  these  fountains 
unless  you  learn  those  original  languages ;  but  you  will 
be  dependent  on  translators.  That  is  all  right  as  far  as 
salvation  is  concerned.  If  we  drink  from  the  bucket 
which  the  translators  carried  from  the  fountain,  we  will 
never  die  of  thirst,  yet,  for  a  thousand  reasons  I  have 
not  space  here  to  mention,  we  should  much  prefer  to 
drink  at  the  fountain  itself. 

(2)  We  need  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  languages  to 
qualify  us  to  understand  the  English,  four-fifths  of 
which  are  taken  from  those  languages.  In  our  great, 
beautiful,  versatile  and  voluminous  Anglo-Saxon  tongue 
we  have  only  twenty-three  thousand  Saxon  words,  which 
constitute  the  nucleus  of  the  great  language,  comprising 
the  vast  vocabulary  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
words,  and  that  vocabulary  rapidly  increasing.  I  have 
no  doubt  but  that  the  English  language  which  is  so 
rapidly  spreading  over  the  whole  earth  and  is  now  the 
popular  language  of  the  world,  so  that  other  nations 
want  their  children  to  learn  it,  will  be  the  language  of 
the  world  during  the  glorious  Millennium,  whose  rising 
aurora  now  thrills  the  hearts  of  many  waiting  and  long- 
ing pilgrims.  You  never  can  be  very  proficient  in  the 
great  English  language  without  a  thorough  study  of 
Latin  and  Greek. 

The  Alexandrian  conquest,  B.  C.  325,  put  the  Greek 
language  in  all  the  governments  under  heaven ;  therefore 
it  was  universal  in  the  days  of  Christ  and  His  apostles. 
The  Roman  conquest  did  the  same  for  the  Latin  lan- 
guage three  hundred  years  subsequently.  Consequently 
not  only  the  English,  but  all  other  languages  in  present 


Rev.  W.  B.  GoDBfiy,  A.  M.  yj 

use  are  so  largely  taken  from  those  tongues  that  we  need 
those  fundamental  languages  preparatory  to  the  study 
of  all  the  modern.  A  Greek  and  Latin  scholar  will  learn 
any  of  the  languages  in  India  much  more  easily  and 
quickly  than  the  people  who  have  not  received  a  classi- 
cal education.  If  you  desire  thoroughness  in  any  other 
language,  the  quickest  and  surest  route  is  through  the 
meandering  halls  of  classical  lore. 

(3)  We  need  the  Latin  and  Greek  to  qualify  us  for 
real  proficiency  in  the  sciences,  all  of  which  we  have  to 
study  in  the  nomenclature  of  these  languages.  We 
never  can  be  learned  in  any  sense  without  studying  the 
sciences,  all  of  which  require  us  constantly  to  use  the 
dead  languages  which  will  be  so  difficult  to  learn  and 
retain  in  the  memory  in  case  we  have  never  studied  them. 
For  example,  zoology,  which  teaches  us  all  about  the 
animal  kingdom,  is  from  soon,  an  animal,  and  logos, 
science ;  therefore  it  means  the  science  of  animals. 
Astronomy  is  from  astron,  a  star,  and  nomos,  law ;  there- 
fore it  means  the  law  of  the  stars.  Whereas  the  sciences 
are  all  expounded  in  the  Greek  language,  the  great  bulk 
of  words  used  in  public  orations  and  written  disserta- 
tions are  from  the  Latin.  If  you  would  master  languages 
so  as  to  have  command  of  words  and  easy  fluency  of 
speech,  it  is  really  indispensable  that  you  study  the 
Latin  and  Greek,  which  constitute  the  boundless  the- 
saurus and  illimitable  vocabulary  of  universal  language. 

(4)  We  are  living  in  by  far  the  most  literary  age  the 
world  has  ever  known.  During  the  by-gone  ages  you 
could  count  on  your  fingers  the  prominent  authors  of  all 
nations.  Now  they  are  rapidly  becoming  an  innumerable 
host,  flooding  the  world  with  literature.  It  is  certainly 
a  glorious  privilege  to  participate  in  the  prevailing  aspir- 


yS  Autobiography    of 

ation  to  large  usefulness.  The  study  of  the  Latin  and 
Greek,  and  actual  proficiency  in  the  same,  is  really  in- 
dispensable to  qualification  for  efficient  authorship. 

But  you  may  raise  the  question  of  financial  inability  to 
acquire  these  languages.      This   is   really  imaginary  on 
your  part.    That  is  a  circumstance  in  your  favor  and  not 
against  you.     If  you  had  plenty  of  money  it  would  be 
difficult  for  you  to  resist  the  temptation  to  luxuriate  and 
prodigalize ;  if  not  to  actually  fall  by  dissipation  and  even 
debauchery,  thus  withering  and  blighting  all  your  hopes 
of  scholarship  and  usefulness.     Read  the  biographies  of 
the  great  scholars  and  you  will  find  they  all  had  to  con- 
tend with  meagre  finances,  if  not  actual  pauperism,  from 
the  beginning  of  their  educational  course.     I  was  a  stu- 
dent twenty-one  years,  and  a  constant  witness  of  these 
phenomena,  i.  e.,  the  failure  and  often  the  wreckage  of 
the  rich  students,  and  the  brilliant  achievements  and  col- 
lege honors  conferred  upon  the  poor.     So  rejoice  in  your 
poverty  and  thank  God  for  thus,  in  His  providence,  for- 
tifying you  against  the  temptations  which  on  all  sides 
engulf  the  rich  in  ruin  both  for  time  and  eternity.     You 
cannot  go  through  college  without  money,  but  God  will 
attend  to  it  if  you  will  be  true.     Do  not  understand  me 
to  encourage  you  to  beg  your  way  through.     That  will 
never  do.    If  you  start  on  that  line,  you  are  ruined  before 
you  begin.    David  says,  "I  have  never  seen  the  righteous 
forsaken,  nor  his  seed  begging  bread."     You  must  hold 
your  head  up  and  let  all  the  world  know  that  you  are  no 
beggar,  but  God's  millionaire,  rich  in  faith,  though  not 
a  dollar  be  in  your  pocket. 

By  the  help  of  God,  I  made  and  paid  every  cent  of  my 
collegiate  expenses  by  my  own  exertions.  God  raised 
up  friends  in  the  strange  lands  whither  I  sojourned  dur- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  79 

ing  those  six  years,  as  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  leav- 
ing the  circle  of  my  consanguinity  and  acquaintance  and 
going  among  people  who  knew  neither  me  nor  my  ances- 
tors. Among  those  friends,  the  most  prominent  was 
Adison  Parks,  of  Perryville,  Ky.,  who  put  his  hand  on 
me  and  took  an  especial  interest  in  my  education,  loaning 
me  money,  indulging  me  for  clothing  and  giving  me  em- 
ployment as  a  teacher.  This  good  man  did  not  wait  for 
me  to  ask  him  to  loan  me  money,  but  he  would  ask  me. 
I  remember  the  year  I  graduated  in  college,  he  handed 
me  a  fifty  dollar  bill,  observing,  "I  expect  you  will  need 
this  before  you  graduate."  I  told  him  I  did,  but  ob- 
served :  "Brother  Parks,  I  already  owe  you  a  lot  of 
money,  and  do  not  like  to  take  this,  as  I  am  afraid  I  will 
die,  and  then  you  will  never  get  it,  for  there  is  nobody 
to  pay  it  for  me."  He  responded :  "You  take  it  and 
rest  easy  about  it.  If  you  live,  I  know  you  will  pay  it 
back ;  and  if  you  die,  please  just  count  it  paid,  as  I  would 
be  so  glad  to  help  you  with  the  full  amount  that  you  owe 
me."  God  let  me  live  to  pay  him  and  everybody  else 
the  five  hundred  dollars  which  I  owed  for  my  education. 
When  I  graduated  I  was  not  worth  five  cents.  The 
churches,  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  and  Campbellite,  all 
proposed  to  educate  me  gratuitously,  but  I  declined;  I 
knew  that  in  that  case  they  would  feel  I  belonged  to 
them.  I  was  determined  to  be  free  and  belong  to  none 
but  God.  I  shall  always  praise  God  for  His  signal  mercy 
in  delivering  me  in  times  and  ways  past  my  space  to 
enumerate. 

When  I  was  toiling  hard  for  an  education  amid  the 
embarrassments  of  financial  destitution,  the  Campbellites 
proposed  to  send  me  to  their  great  college  at  Lexington, 
Ky.,  and  carry  me  through  the  entire  curriculum  at  their 


80  Autobiography   op 

own  expense.  They  said :  "Then  if  you  will  preach  for 
us,  we  will  make  you  rich."  Oh,  what  a  temptation  for 
a  penniless  boy!  It  thrilled  me  with  a  burning  enthu- 
siasm for  a  thorough  collegiate  education.  It  is  a  won- 
der I  did  not  get  caught  in  that  dangerous  lasso.  If  I 
had  received  their  education  and  become  their  preacher, 
— how  awful  to  think ! — I  would  have  preached  my  own 
way  to  Hell !  The  preacher's  Hell  is  the  hottest  and 
most  terrible  of  all,  with  the  people  deceived  and  ruined 
by  false  doctrine,  forever  anathematizing  him  as  the 
cause  of  their  hopeless  ruin.  It  grieves  me  to  see  some 
of  our  dear  holiness  people  assuming  a  beggarly  atti- 
tude, which  dishonors  God,  grieves  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
conduces  to  their  own  spiritual  leanness,  as  well  as  to 
the  delusion  of  others.  God's  people  are  not  beggars, 
but  kings  and  priests.  The  ink  was  on  the  pen  to  make 
the  title  to  property  in  Indiana,  said  to  be  worth  four 
thousand  dollars.  I  utterly  declined  it,  and  have  always 
been  glad  of  it.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  Texas, 
which  I  also  declined.  It  was  again  repeated  in  the 
state  of  Washington,  but,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  was 
enabled  to  decline  it.  Satan  is  very  adroit  and  ready  to 
use  our  friends  as  well  as  our  enemies  to  tie  us  up  and 
encumber  us,  and,  if  possible,  utilize  against  our  full 
efficiencies  for  God  and  souls. 

During  my  collegiate  course  I  alternated  the  attitude 
of  student  and  teacher.  In  1857,  while  in  Georgetown 
College,  when  the  time  arrived  for  me  to  leave  and  go  to 
Perryville,  I  was  engaged  to  teach  the  public  school, 
which  occupied  the  vacations  of  the  graded  schools  in 
the  town  and  precisely  suited  my  convenience,  as  I 
wished  to  lose  as  little  time  as  possible  out  of  the  ensu- 
ing college  session.     I  had  taught  that  same  school  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  81 

preceding  year  at  the  same  time.  I  just  had  thirty  dol- 
lars yet  coming  to  me  from  my  wages  the  preceding  year, 
and  aimc1  to  stay  in  college  only  long  enough  to  consume 
the  money  I  could  command.  But  somehow  that  time 
I  made  a  mistake,  though  I  was  generally  very  particular. 
When  I  hunted  up  everything  I  owed  preparatory  to 
settlement  before  leaving,  I  found  it  would  take  sixty 
dollars  instead  of  thirty  to  clear  me  of  debt  and  carry 
me  to  Perryville.  I  got  into  serious  trouble  over  it,  as 
I  was  very  unwilling  to  leave  there  in  debt,  as  students 
often  did  to  their  deep  disgrace.  I  took  it  to  the  Lord  in 
prayer  and  told  Him  that  I  was  there,  understood  as  a 
ministerial  student,  and  had  promised  them  all  to  pay 
them  before  I  left,  and  I  feared  that  my  delinquency 
would  damege  the  interest  of  His  kingdom  in  that  place, 
as  I  had  been  preaching  and  testifying  boldly.  I  was 
really  in  deep  trouble  and  cried  to  Him  with  a  broken 
heart.  He  comforted  me,  taking  all  my  burdens  away, 
drying  up  my  tears  and  making  my  heart  glad,  yet  I 
could  not  explain  it.  I  was  looking  for  a  letter  bringing 
me  the  thirty  dollars.  It  came  and,  to  my  unutterable 
surprise,  contained  sixty  dollars.  When  I  opened  it  and 
read  the  bills,  I  could  hardly  believe  my  eyes.  Gushing 
tears  of  gratitude  and  surprise  flooded  my  eyes  till  I 
could  not  read  the  bills.  I  went  around  and  paid  my 
debts,  bidding  the  people  adieu,  and  mounting  the  stage, 
as  that  was  the  day  before  railroads  were  in  that  country, 
I  hastened  to  Perryville.  I  went  at  once  to  see  old  Dr. 
Polk,  a  very  venerable  local  Methodist  preacher,  who 
was  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  I  asked  him: 
"Why  did  you  send  me  sixty  dollars,  when  you  only 
owed  me  thirty?"  He  responded:  "When  we  drew  the 
public  money,  it  amounted  to  thirty  dollars  more  than 


82  Autobiography   of 

we  expected,  and  I  felt  that  we  ought  to  send  it  all  to 
you,  so  I  went  around  and  asked  the  patrons  what  they 
thought  about  it.  They,  without  a  single  exception,  re- 
sponded: 'Of  course,  send  it  all  to  him,  for  he  deserves 
it;  that  boy  taught  us  the  best  school  we  ever  had  in 
town ;  he  labored  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  as  he  had  so 
many  scholars,  in  order  to  give  them  all  due  attention.' " 
The  explanation  of  that  is  easy  and  simple.  Who  ever 
heard  of  people  overpaying  a  teacher  thirty  dollars? 
God  touched  the  hearts  of  those  stingy  Kentuckians  to 
sympathize  with  the  boy,  so  that  they  responded  unan- 
imously and  sent  him  all  the  money. 

At  that  time  the  "woman's  rights"  problem  was  only 
beginning  to  receive  a  little  attention.  I  am  glad  it  has 
subsequently  reached  a  glorious  victory.  Then,  as  you 
see  in  my  case  abundantly  verified,  a  boy  couM  prose- 
cute a  thorough  classical  education  by  simply  alternating 
student  and  teacher,  as  he  had  no  trouble  to  get  a  place 
as  a  teacher,  while  it  was  not  at  all  common  for  girls 
to  teach  the  public  schools.  It  is  very  gratifying  now  to 
recognize  facilities  quite  as  available  in  behalf  of  girls 
as  boys,  and  therefore  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why 
all  the  young  people  who  desire  a  thorough  collegiate 
education  may  not  receive  it.  The  reason  why  the  ex- 
penses had  better  be  defrayed  by  teaching  is  because  it 
will  facilitate  the  education  about  as  rapidly  as  if  you 
were  enjoying  all  the  opportunities  of  a  student  in  col- 
lege. I  taught  Latin  and  Greek,  and  everything  else 
which  I  was  studying  in  college,  whenever  I  was  out  in 
the  public  schools  laboring  to  defray  my  educational  ex- 
penses. I  actually  graduated  as  if  I  had  not  stopped  to 
teach,  because  so  assiduously  did  I  study  while  teaching 
that   I   never   fell   behind   my   classes.     N.    B.     I   only 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  83 

taught  enough  while  going  through  to  make  five  hundred 
dollars  of  my  expenses,  as  friends  willingly  and  gladly 
loaned  me  the  other  five  hundred,  which  God  enabled  me 
to  pay  after  I  had  completed  my  education.  The  day 
of  my  graduation,  I  was  offered  a  hundred  dollars  a 
month  for  teaching. 

During  all  of  my  collegiate  life  I  preached  also.  The 
colored  people,  who  constituted  about  half  the  popula- 
tion, were  in  slavery  and  consequently  had  very  little 
preaching.  When  I  went  to  Georgetown  I  soon  found 
the  colored  Methodists,  Baptists  and  Presbyterians  all 
had  separate  church  buildings.  This  was  really  neces- 
sary, as  they  were  not  encouraged  to  attend  the  white 
churches.  As  that  was  a  Baptist  College,  and  there  was 
quite  a  host  of  preachers  attending,  but  all  members  of 
that  denomination  except  your  humble  servant,  when  I 
went  with  a  Baptist  preacher  to  preach  for  the  slaves  in 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  he  introduced  me  to  them  as 
a  Methodist  preacher,  they  were  surprised  and  shouted 
over  it  and  asked  me  to  preach  for  them.  It  soon  hap- 
pened, from  the  fortuitous  circumstances  of  my  being  the 
only  Methodist  preacher  in  college,  that  I  had  the  com- 
plete monopoly  of  the  Methodist  colored  church.  This 
I  much  enjoyed.  They  always  gave  me  a  packed  audi- 
ence, and  we  had  rousing  times.  Oh,  how  the  old  style 
shouts  invariably  roared  through  the  house,  when  the 
Spirit  fell  on  the  people  toward  the  winding  up  of  the 
service,  reminding  me  of  Gabriel's  trumpet.  I  can 
never  forget  their  singing.  Of  course  they  had  no  books 
to  bother  them,  as  none  could  read.  It  is  a  conceded 
fact  that  the  children  of  Ham  excel  all  of  their  consan- 
guinity in  musical  talents.  I  have  never  known  a  negro 
who  could   not  sing.     Though   none  of  their   race  had 


84  Autobiography   o* 

learning,  there  were  natural  poets  among  them  who 
made  their  songs  and  they  all  committed  them  to  mem- 
ory. Oh,  how  delighted  I  would  be  to  hear  those  songs 
now !  In  my  humble  appreciation,  the  learning  which 
has  come  to  those  people  since  their  emancipation  has 
damaged  their  singing.  They  can  now  all  read.  There- 
fore they  use  books  like  white  people  and  have  given  up 
their  old  songs  which  were  so  delectable  to  my  soul. 
They  knew  many  of  these  songs  and  could  sing  all  night. 
T  sometimes  was  taken  to  task  by  their  masters  for  keep- 
ing them  out  so  late  in  the  night.  We  would  have  the 
altar  crowded  and  piled  with  mourners  seeking  the 
Lord,  and  they  held  on  till  the  small  hours  of  the  morn- 
ing were  coming  and  going,  singing  and  praying  and 
shoutirg  over  the  mourners  to  get  them  through.  Of 
course  I  could  not  use  authority  any  more  than  to  pro- 
nounce the  benediction  in  due  time,  then  leave  them  in  the 
hands  of  God.  I  give  you  a  little  specimen  of  their  songs, 
of  which  they  had  an  ample  supply  so  that  I  never  knew 
them  to  run  out.  Of  course,  in  the  absence  of  all  learn- 
ing, they  would  be  characteristic  of  repetition. 

"Joseph  had  a  vision ; 
The  sun  and  moon  and  eleven  stars 
Fell  down  in  obedience  to  him. 

Chorus  : 

"Shine,  shine,  shine  like  a  star 
Around   the  throne  of  God. 

"His  brothers'  wrath  was  kindled, 
They  sold  him  to  the  Ishmaelites 
And  carried  him  into  Egypt. 

"They  brought  him  unto  Pharaoh 
And  there  was  laid  the  cornerstone 
On  which  to  build  salvation." 


Ruv.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  85 

Perhaps  you  would  like  another: 

"Some  say  that  John  was  a  Raptist, 
And  others  say  he  was  a  Jew ; 
But  the  Holy  Scriptures  teach 
That  John  was  a  preacher,  too. 

Choeus  : 

"Let  us  cheer  the  weary  traveler 
Along  the  heavenly  road. 

"I  took  my  Gospel  trumpet, 
And  I  began  to  blow, 
And  if  the  Lord  will  help  ine 
I'll  blow  where'er  I  go." 

N.  B.  If  you  have  a  classical  education,  you  can  always 
get  employment.  So  ample  will  be  your  resources  that, 
while  others  are  out  of  work,  you  will  always  have  more 
than  you  can  do.  My  age  would  now  rank  me  as  a  super- 
annuated preacher,  my  work  done  and  without  a  job, 
whereas  I  actually  have  open  doors  for  a  thousand  men. 
My  son  and  son-in-law  both  beg  me  hard  to  quit  work 
and  let  them  take  care  of  me.  While  I  would  be  much 
delighted  to  remain  at  home  and  comfort  my  dear  com- 
panion, who,  like  myself,  is  in  life's  evening,  it  seems 
that  I  cannot  possibly  get  the  time.  I  am  doing  more 
work  than  the  young  men.  This  would  not  be  so  sig- 
nificantly true  if  I  had  not,  amid  difficulties,  to  others 
insuperable,  persevered  through  my  classical  course. 
Therefore  I  advise  all.  while  you  are  at  it,  to  lay  a  good 
foundation.  The  difficulties  which  intimidate  you  will 
prove  only  to  be  the  wheels  of  the  engine  that  propels 
you.  The  apparent  adversities  are  all  blessings  in  dis- 
guise. Oh,  you  plead  intellectual  deficiency  and  incom- 
petency of  memory.  Memory,  as  well  as  all  the  intellec- 
tual faculties,  is  wonderfully  susceptible  of  cultivation.    It 


86  Autobiography   of 

is  certified  that  Dr.  Adam  Clarke  was  pronounced  the 
"gump"  of  his  class  and  ridiculed  for  his  stupidity,  yet 
he  actually  became  the  greatest  scholar  in  the  world  in 
his  day.  It  is  said  that  Daniel  Webster  when  he  gradu- 
ated from  college  and  received  his  diploma  had  to  hear 
the  painful  ipse  dixit  of  the  president,  "Here,  take  it, 
Dan;  but  you  do  not  deserve  it."  This  awful  public  re- 
buke aroused  the  gigantic  ambition  of  that  hitherto  so:.ie- 
what  dormant  intellect.  Then  Dan  threw  it  down  on  the 
floor  and  would  not  have  it,  turned  on  his  heel  and  went 
back  into  college,  and  going  through  the  second  time, 
carried  everything  before  him,  putting  into  eclipse  all  of 
his  comrades  and  graduating  again  with  the  first  honors 
of  his  class,  and  going  out  to  take  his  place  at  the  front 
of  American  statesmanship.  It  is  said  that  while  study- 
ing law  under  a  venerable  Jewish  counsellor,  he  one  day 
in  recitation  observed  that  there  were  so  many  lawyers 
he  feared  that  he  could  not  get  a  place  to  practice.  His 
hoary-headed  preceptor  gravely  responded :  "Dan,  there 
is  plenty  of  room  at  the  top."  He  took  him  at  his  word 
and  went  to  the  top  and  found  plenty  of  room.  While 
going  through  your  education,  you  think  the  time  long; 
after  you  get  through  it  will  soon  get  to  looking  short. 
I  find  young  people  disposed  to  hurry  through  their  edu- 
cation and  hasten  away  to  the  heathen  field  The  great 
trouble  is  that  when  you  get  there,  there  is  quite  a  prob- 
ability that  you  will  be  sorry  you  did  not  prosecute  your 
education  more  thoroughly  before  you  came,  thus  reach- 
ing a  better  state  of  qualification  for  your  work.  Oh, 
but  you  say :  "The  heathen  are  going  to  Hell."  That 
is  true,  but  you  do  not  have  to  go  to  the  dark  Orient  to 
find  them;  they  are  at  your  door.  If  you  cannot  be 
useful  in  saving  the  heathen  of  your  home  city  or  town, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  87 

set  it  down  you  will  also  prove  a  failure  in  Hong  Kong. 
Mark  it  down,  "Where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way." 
Do  not  forget  the  old  Roman  motto :  "Perseverantia 
omnia  vincit."     Perseverance  conquers  all  things. 


Chapter  IV. 
YOUNG  MANHOOD. 

Our  graduating  day,  June  30,  1859,  was  a  great 
orationary  epoch  in  my  life.  An  audience  of  ten  thou- 
sand, and  twenty  young  men  delivering  their  graduating 
orations  to  the  spellbound  multitude,  interspersed  with 
the  finest  music  the  country  could  produce;  meanwhile 
bouquettes  rained  from  the  audience  at  the  close  of  the 
speeches,  congratulatory  of  the  orator. 

My  wedlock  was  felicitous  in  the  superlative  degree. 
It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  God,  in  His  mercy,  ran- 
sacked creation  when  He  selected  a  helpmeet  for  un- 
worthy me.  When  I  was  a  youth  attending  school  at 
Perryville,  a  great  revival  swept  through  the  Methodist 
Church,  converting  one  hundred  and  seven  souls.  I 
was  then  a  preacher  in  my  humble  way ;  especially  do- 
ing my  utmost  to  glorify  God  in  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel  to  the  toiling  slaves,  who  were  much  neglected. 
While  the  house  was  over-crowded  and  the  altar  flooded 
with  weeping  penitents,  the  leader  called  on  me  to  pray. 
The  Lord  helped  me,  and  as  the  converting  power  de- 
scended, a  rosy  damsel  of  fifteen  bright  years  arose  near 
me  with  a  radiant  face  and  jubilant  shout.  I  was  not 
personally  acquainted  with  her,  although  I  knew  her 
father,  who  was  a  leading  member  of  the  church.  I  saw 
him  rush  in  and  take  this  rejoicing  damsel  in  his  arms. 
One  near  me  said:     "One  of  Jim  Durham's  girls  has 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  89 

got  religion."  In  the  providence  of  God,  five  and  a-half 
years  subsequently  she  became  my  wife.  Forty-six  years 
have  rolled  away.  If  we  both  live  four  years  more  we 
will  reach  our  golden  wedding.  But  this  is  certainly 
very  improbable,  as  we  are  both  quite  out  in  the  evening 
and  she,  although  six  and  a-half  years  my  junior,  has 
felt  the  burden  of  the  conflict  more  than  I,  and  much 
indicates  physical  disability.  We  have  one  consolation : 
if  we  do  not  reach  our  golden  wedding  in  the  dear  "old 
Kentucky  home,"  we  will  have  it  in  the  New  Jerusalem, 
where  there  is  plenty  of  gold,  and  the  nuptial  festival 
will  never  hear  the  final  benediction. 

We  entered  into  our  engagement  two  years  before  the 
time  appointed  for  its  verification.  I  still  had  a  year  in 
college.  Then  I  knew  I  would  graduate  deeply  in  debt, 
and  I  was  not  willing  to  get  married  until  that  was  all 
liquidated.  Those  are  two  memorable  years  in  my  pil- 
grimage. As  I  was  studying  and  teaching  off  at  a  con- 
siderable distance,  I  visited  her  but  seldom  during  the 
time.  I  invariably  found  other  suitors  waiting  on  her. 
It  kept  me  in  hot  water.  I  thought  she  ought  to  dis- 
miss them  all,  in  view  of  her  engagement  to  me,  but 
was  afraid  to  suggest  it,  lest  she  might  think  I  was  too 
particular,  and  conclude  to  eliminate  me  instead  of  them. 
Therefore  I  said  nothing  about  it  to  her  or  to  anybody 
else,  but  kept  it  before  the  Lord,  wondering  if  she  would 
finally  be  true  to  the  engagement  she  Wad  made  with  me. 
Sure  enough  the  happy  day  rolled  around,  when  we  met 
the  crowd  at  her  father's  house,  with  the  presiding  elder 
ready  to  officiate.  Those  beaux  who  had  given  me  so 
much  annoyance  the  preceding  two  years  were  also  on 
hand,  but  they  looked  blue  as  indigo  and  sad  as  if  they 
were  at  a  funeral.     I  never  saw  them  afterward.     The 


90  Autobiography  off 


' 


solemnization  of  the  nuptials  eliminated  them  forever. 

Here  we  see  a  beautiful  lesson  illustrated  in  the  gra- 
cious economy.  Until  you  get  married  to  the  Lord  the 
carnal  suitors,  arrayed  in  all  the  alluring  phantasmagoria 
of  the  world,  will  wait  on  you,  tc  your  constant  annoy- 
ance if  you  are  true  to  God,  as  well  as  your  incessant 
peril,  because  in  an  evil  hour  you  may  succumb  to  their 
bewitching  enchantments  and  enter  into  wedlock  with 
one  of  them,  which  will  seal  your  doom  in  endless  woe. 

Immediately  after  my  graduation  I  became  president 
of  a  college,  and  having  on  hands  the  entire  collegiate 
course,  classical  and  scientific,  through  which  I  had 
passed  as  a  student  of  the  curriculum,  I  enjoyed  a  grand 
opportunity  to  review  the  books  and  explain  them  to 
the  classes,  thus  even  making  it  more  profitable  than  the 
post-graduate  course,  which  is  the  frequent  resort  of 
collegiate  graduates  for  their  establishment  before  their 
newly  accumulated  learning  will  evanesce.  Our  school 
was  a  booming  success ;  meanwhile  the  people  also  seem- 
ed delighted  and  much  edified  by  my  preaching. 

The  great  Civil  War  broke  out  only  one  year  after 
our  marriage.  A  terrible  battle,  the  most  bloody  and 
magnitudinous  in  Kentucky  during  the  entire  war,  was 
fought  at  Perryville,  and,  of  course,  superinduced  the 
utter  abandonment  of  our  college,  the  dispersion  of  all 
the  people  identified  with  it,  and  the  occupancy  of  the 
building  as  a  Union  hospital.  Very  soon  I  responded 
to  a  call  at  Russellville,  Ind.,  whither  we  migrated,  trans- 
ferring Harmonia  College.  Many  of  the  students  fol- 
lowed us  thither.  There  we  labored  at  teaching  and 
preaching  till  the  war  was  over,  and,  responsive  to  the 
earnest  desire  of  my  dear  wife,  who  had  become  home- 
sick, we  returned  to  Perryville  and  there  re-opened  Har- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  91 

monia  College.  During  the  eighteen  years  of  my  life 
as  a  teacher  God  signally  honored  my  labors.  He  per- 
mitted me  to  see  much  encouraging  fruit  meanwhile, 
whereby  my  heart  has  been  cheered  in  all  of  my  subse- 
quent pilgrimage.  Meeting  my  students  I  find  many  of 
tkem  efficient  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  and  pillars  in  the 
Oborch  of  God. 

Such  was  my  enthusiasm  to  do  all  the  good  I  possibly 
co«rfd  that,  in  addition  to  the  college  of  two  hundred 
students,  I  also  had  a  circuit  which  the  Conference  had 
given  me  to  serve  as  pastor.  Rest  assured  I  was  a  most 
indefatigable  laborer  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord.  I 
preached  Saturdays  and  Sundays  and  frequently  at  night 
during  the  five  school  days  of  the  week.  I  had  been 
preaching  at  Wesley  Chapel,  one  of  my  churches  five 
miles  in  the  country,  every  night  during  the  two  weeks 
preceding  the  Christmas  holidays,  and  after  their  arrival 
holding  meetings  during  the  day  as  well  as  the  night. 
Meanwhile  the  Lord  turned  on  us  a  glorious  revival, 
characterized  by  deep  conviction  and  powerful  conver- 
sions. However,  there  was  nothing  said  about  sanctifi- 
catton,  as  no  one  in  attendance  (in  1868)  had  the  experi- 
ence or  knew  anything  about  it.  We  had  some  splendid 
local  preachers,  who  were  thought  to  be  literally  full  of 
religion  and  overflowing,  and  it  is  certain  that  God  sig- 
nally blessed  their  labors,  but  they  were  utterly  ignor- 
ant of  sanctification.  I  had  read  about  it  in  John  Wes- 
ley's catechism  when  a  little  boy,  and  later  in  his  other 
books,  as,  you  know  every  young  Methodist  preacher 
is  obliged  to  read  them.  I  had  found  them  full  of  Chris- 
tian perfection,  but  being  utterly  ignorant  of  the  matter 
experimentally,  I  contented  myself  with  my  own  intel- 
lectual  exegesis,   arriving  at   the   conclusion    that   uncle 


92 


Autobiography   op 


John's  head  was  muddled  on  regeneration  and  sancti- 
fication,  and  that  he  actually  mixed  them  up,  using  them 
interchangeably.  However,  I  had  been  convicted  for  it 
all  the  nineteen  years  which  had  elapsed  since  my  con- 
version, and  incessantly  seeking  it  in  my  blind  way,  like 
everybody  else,  I  suppose,  by  works,  thinking  I  would 
grow  into  it  in  due  time. 

At  one  of  my  churches  I  had  met  an  old  woman, 
utterly  illiterate,  who  claimed  the  experience,  and  I  be- 
lieve had  it.  As  she  was  incompetent  to  read  the  Bible, 
of  course  she  could  not  expound  it  scripturally ;  yet  the 
testimony  of  old  Sister  Baxter,  whose  house  was  the 
preacher's  home  when  on  duty  in  that  neighborhood, 
was  so  clear  and  her  testimony  so  positive,  corroborated 
by  an  unearthly  radiance  lingering  in  her  face  and  flash- 
ing from  her  eyes,  that  it  had  an  effect  to  convict  me. 
Yet  I  soliloquized,  "Here  am  I,  a  collegiate  graduate, 
having  read  the  Bible  from  my  childhood,  surely  I  ought 
to  know  more  about  it  than  this  old  sister  who  does  not 
know  her  alphabet."  During  the  preceding  collegiate 
vacation,  I  was  travelling  in  the  Louisville  Conference 
and  fell  into  a  protracted  meeting  at  Pleasant  Run. 
There  I  found  a  glorious  revival  sweeping  along;  audi 
ence  fine,  altar  well  filled,  and  the  meeting  running  all 
day,  with  basket  dinner  on  the  ground  after  the  old 
style.  The  pastor  put  me  up  to  preach.  In  those  day? 
I  studied  hard  and  made  sermons,  as  I  thought,  adapted 
to  all  occasions.  Therefore  I  selected  a  revival  sermon, 
as  T  considered  it,  and  delivered  it  to  the  best  of  my 
ability,  feeling  that  I  was  really  meeting  all  demands. 
I  concluded  with  the  usual  invitation.  The  mourners 
were  so  convicted  that  they  came  as  a  matter  of  cours" 
till  they  got  satisfied.     While  the  altar  service  was   in 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  93 

progress  and  the  saints  were  praying  for  the  mourners 
and  exhorting  them,  a  very  old  woman,  a  mother  in 
Israel,  looking  for  the  fiery  chariot,  got  hold  of  the 
pastor's  arm,  pulled  up  and,  as  she  was  partially  deaf, 
doubtless  spoke  louder  than  she  thought,  for  I  dis- 
tinctly heard  her  sobbing  utterances :  "Oh,  Brother 
Donaldson,  please  do  not  put  up  that  little  fop  any  more, 
lest  you  ruin  our  revival."  It  was  to  me  a  thunderbolt 
from  a  cloudless  sky.  I  went  away  and  fell  on  the 
ground  and  wept  bitterly,  meanwhile  soliloquizing: 
"O  Lord,  is  it  possible,  after  preaching  fifteen  years  and 
toiling  so  hard  to  work  my  way  through  college,  that 
after  all  I  am  nothing  but  a  'little  fop' !  O  Lord,  do,  for 
Jesus'  sake,  have  mercy  on  me  and  give  me  the  needed 
light  and  help  me  to  walk  in  the  same."  Though  noth- 
ing was  said  in  that  meeting  about  sanctification,  the 
verdict  of  the  dear  mother  in  Israel,  who  called  me  a 
''little  fop,"  broke  my  heart  and  I  never  survived  it. 
She  was  like  the  mother  in  Israel  who  threw  the  stone 
on  the  head  of  Abimelech,  when  besieging  the  city  with 
his  army,  and  slew  that  great  military  chieftain. 

The  Holy  Spirit  used  those  two  mothers  in  Israel  to 
culminate  the  conviction  which  had  been  lingering  in  my 
heart  for  nineteen  years,  while  I  had  resorted  not  only 
to  immersion,  but  to  a  thousand  other  good  works,  only 
to  be  disappointed  in  my  fond  aspirations  to  satisfy  my 
longing  soul.  Jesus  was  standing  by  me  all  the  time, 
offering  me  the  panacea  for  all  my  woes,  the  elixir  for 
all  my  griefs,  His  own  precious  blood  shed  on  Calvary; 
but  I  thought  I  had  to  do  something  and  did  not  realize 
that  HE  had  done  it  all,  and  left  me  nothing  to  do  but 
believe,  shout  and  obey. 

My   revival    was   sweeping   on;   my   local    preachers, 


94  Autobiography   of 

licensed  exhorters,  and  bright  members  working  hero- 
ically, none  of  them  claiming  anything  but  the  regen- 
erated experience  and  doubtless  the  most  of  them  be- 
lieving that  is  all.  I  preached  on  the  rich  man  and  Laz- 
arus to  a  packed  audience,  with  many  who  could  not  get 
into  the  house.  When  I  opened  the  altar,  it  was  crowded 
with  seekers  for  conversion,  as  I  invited  no  others,  hav- 
ing never  heard  of  sanctification,  and  never  did  till  it 
reached  myself. 

After  receiving  the  experience,  the  Lord  wonderfully 
poured  out  His  Spirit.  I  had  spent  hours  that  afternoon 
out  in  the  woods  crying  to  God  to  satisfy  my  longing 
soul  and  give  me  the  full,  giorious  liberty  for  which 
I  had  been  sighing  those  nineteen  years,  preaching  fif- 
teen of  them,  little  dreaming  that  there  was  victory 
ahead,  which  would  make  preaching  and  everything  else 
a  delight  instead  of  a  duty.  Strong  was  the  cry  of  my 
heart  for  the  great  desideratum,  which  had  been  like 
the  ignis  fatus  flitting  before  my  mental  vision  all  those 
many  years ;  but  like  the  school  boy  who  ran  himself 
out  of  breath  to  find  the  pot  of  gold  at  the  rainbow's  end, 
I  learned  by  sad  experience  the  essential  difference  be- 
tween pursuit  and  possession.  Such  was  the  longing 
of  my  soul  as  to  almost  render  me  oblivious  to  the  doz- 
ens and  scores  who  had  crowded  the  altar  responsive 
to  my  invitation.  That  was  a  night  I  never  can  forget. 
God,  in  His  mercy,  sent  us  a  landslide  from  the  upper 
world ;  a  Mississippi  River  inundated  us  all,  which  rap- 
idly broadened  into  a  mighty  sea  and  disembogued  into 
an  ocean  without  bank  or  bottom.  I  have  been  basking 
in  that  ocean  ever  since.  Oh,  the  incommunicable  sweet- 
ness of  perfect  love ! 

"Oh,  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills, 
Their  lasting  silence  break ; 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  95 

And  all  harmonious  human  tongues 
Their  Savior's  praises  speak. 

"Angels,  assist  our  mighty  joys, 

Strike  all   your  harps  of  gold, 
But  when  you  reach  your  highest  notes, 
His  love  can  ne'er  be  told." 

I  cannot  tell  you  much  about  the  events  of  that  mem- 
orable night.  Quite  a  number  of  those  who  came  to  the 
altar  shouted  the  victory.  About  eleven  o'clock,  I  found 
my  own  soul  flooded  and  filled  beyond  all  anticipation. 
My  good  people,  though  exceedingly  happy  in  their 
regenerated  experience  and  heroically  pressing  the  battle 
for  God  and  souls,  as  they  knew  nothing  about  a  higher 
experience,  called  everything  conversion.  Therefore 
they  told  me  I  had  gotten  conversion.  I  joyfully  ac- 
cepted the  situation,  and  went  on  telling  everybody  I  met 
that  God  had  filled  and  flooded  my  soul,  beyond  all  ex- 
pectation, and  I  supposed  that  I  had  never  before  been 
converted  all  right,  and  now,  in  His  condescending 
mercy,  He  had  finished  my  conversion.  Falling  in  with 
a  very  able  Methodist  theologian,  I  told  him  about  my 
wonderful  experience,  saying  that  I  supposed  it  was  just 
a  completion  of  my  conversion,  which  hitherto  had  only 
been  in  a  progressive  attitude.  Then  he  freely  took  it 
on  himself  to  correct  me,  saying:  "Godbey,  if  you  had 
not  been  converted,  none  of  us  have.  So  do  not  tell 
that  any  more.  It  is  that  old  Methodist  experience  of 
sanctification,  or  Christian  perfection,  which,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  you  have  Altered."  Though  he  believed 
in  it  as  taught  in  our  books,  he  did  not  enjoy  the  ex- 
perience, yet  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  made  him  a  great 
blessing  to  me  in  the  way  of  Biblical  exegesis,  from  an 
experimental   standpoint.     I  also  met  another  very  old 


96  Autobiography   ox 

Methodist  preacher,   who  assured  me  it  was  the  great 
second   work   of  ce,    called    Christian   perfection   or 

sanctification,  which  the  Methodists  sought  and  possessed 
when  he  was  a  boy.  Then  I  proceeded  to  read  the  books 
of  Wesley  and  Fletcher  on  Christian  perfection,  as  well 
as  my  Bible,  with  new  light  in  a  glorious  sunburst  be- 
spangling the  inspired  pages.  Whereas  I  had  concluded 
that  Wesley  was  muddled,  actually  mixing  up  the  two 
works  of  grace  and  referring  to  them  interchangeably, 
ever  after  the  light  fell  on  me  on  that  memorable  occa- 
sion, while  reading  the  works  of  the  Methodist  fathers, 
I  have  seen  regeneration  and  sanctification  standing  out 
as  conspicuously  distinct  as  the  Alleghanies  and  the 
Rockies,  with  the  great  Mississippi  valley  rolling  between. 
Sanctification  is  a  most  notable  epoch  in  my  experi- 
ence, marking  a  radical  revolution  in  my  life,  and  soon 
taking  me  out  of  the  school  where  I  had  taught  eighteen 
yea*  s,  and  where  I  thought  I  was  for  life.  So  did  my 
friends,  as  the  signal  blessing  of  God  was  resting  upon 
my  labors  and  they  felt  they  could  not  excuse  me  from 
the  educational  work.  A  notable  phenomenon  at  once 
supervened  in  my  ministry,  and  it  was  thus  everywhere 
I  preached;  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  the  people  and  a 
revival  broke  out  in  my  school.  He  fell  on  the  students 
and  just  about  all  of  them  yielded  and  got  converted. 
When  I  went  to  Conference  and  my  name  was  called 
and,  pursuant  to  the  rules,  I  left  the  house,  while  my 
character  underwent  examination,  from  the  lobby  T 
heard  the  clear,  strong  voice  of  my  presiding  elder,  as 
he  told  the  Conference  that  a  great  change  had  come 
over  me  during  the  year  and  four  hundred  people  had 
been  converted  under  my  ministry.  That  was  strikingly 
phenomenal  in  that  Conference,  which  Campbellism  had 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  97 

flooded  with  an  arctic  river  for  a  whole  generation  and 
about  frozen  out  all  of  the  old  Methodist  fire  that  used 
to  make  sinners  cry  and  Christians  shout.  They  had  so 
long  persistently  preached  against  Holy  Ghost  religion, 
ridiculing  it  unmercifully,  denouncing  and  abusing  the 
mourner's  bench,  that  the  Methodist  preachers,  rank  and 
file,  had  given  up  the  altar  and  contented  themselves  to 
take  in  members  as  seekers  of  salvation,  baptizing  them 
and,  after  the  abolishment  of  a  probation  in  the  Southern 
Methodist  Church,  which  took  place  about  that  time, 
admitting  them  to  bona  fide  membership,  though  unsaved, 
and  even  promoting  them  to  offices.  The  result  was 
that  the  Methodist  Church  was  in  an  exceedingly  low 
condition ;  clear  and  bright  conversions,  attested  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  witnessed  to  in  the  love  feasts,  having 
almost  evanesced  and  become  simply  a  matter  of  bygone 
history. 

I  remained  on  Perryville  circuit  two  years,  preaching 
all  the  time  I  could  get  compatible  with  my  heavy  duties 
in  the  college.  Then  feeling  it  my  duty  to  devote  more 
time  to  preaching  the  Gospel  and  saving  souls,  I  resigned 
the  presidency  and  the  trustees  elected  another  man. 
The  Conference  sent  me  to  Mackville,  only  ten  miles 
distant.  So  many  of  my  old  students  followed  me  that 
they  constrained  me  to  take  a  select  school  of  thirty-two 
pupils,  all  in  the  high  grades.  This  was  my  last  year 
of  the  eighteen  I  faithfully  served  in  the  educational 
field.  I  entered  it  simply  to  defray  my  educational  ex- 
penses, but  after  that  was  done,  the  people  held  me 
with  a  grip  so  tight  that  it  seemed  T  never  could  break 
it;  at  the  same  time  telling  me  that  God  was  so  wonder- 
fully blessing  me  as  an  educator  that  I  ought  to  receive 
it  as  an  evidence  that  it  was  His  will  for  me  to  continue 


98  Autobiography   op 

in  that  work;  no  one  ever  daring  to  suggest  that  I 
should  be  preaching.  Therefore  I  acquiesced  in  it  and 
concluded  to  spend  my  life  in  the  educational  field,  as 
well  as  preaching  the  Gospel,  thinking  that  the  two  move 
like  David  and  Jonathan  in  perfect  harmony,  either  with 
other. 

As  above  specified,  sanctification  radically  revolution- 
ized my  whole  subsequent  life.  I  had  grand  air-castles, 
building  big  boarding  houses  and  contemplating  more. 
When  the  fires  of  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  me  in  sanctifi- 
cation they  burned  up  all  of  my  air-castles,  and  I  have 
never  seen  them  since  they  went  down  into  ashes. 

I  became  a  Free  Mason  at  the  age  of  twenty-one.  I 
would  have  joined  sooner,  but  all  have  to  reach  majority 
before  they  will  admit  them  into  that  order.  I  thought 
it  was  all  right,  because  the  prominent  Methodist  preach- 
ers, as  well  as  those  of  other  churches,  were  all  in  it. 
They  had  honored  me  with  the  chaplaincy,  and  I  was  a 
regular  attendant  of  the  lodge.  I  had  also  for  similar 
reasons  joined  the  Odd  Fellows  and  was  serving  them 
in  the  chaplaincy.  I  also  had  my  life  insured,  feeling  no 
conscientious  scruples  about  these  things.  Therefore, 
when  the  fires  of  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  me,  filling  and 
flooding  my  soul  and  transforming  me  into  a  cyclone, 
those  hallowed  flames  burned  up  the  Free  Mason,  the 
Odd  Fellow,  the  collegiate  president,  the  big  preacher, 
and  life  insurance;  thus  leaving  me  quite  an  ash-pile  in 
that  howling  wilderness  where  I  had  roamed  nineteen 
years,  fifteen  of  which  I  was  preaching  the  Gospel. 

When  people  have  their  friends  and  relatives  cremated, 
they  generally  carefully  urn  the  ashes  and  keep  them. 
I  was  just  in  too  big  a  hurry  to  cross  the  Jordan  to  urn 
the  ashes  of  my  old  friends.     Therefore,  leaving  them 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  99 

in  the  wilderness,  I  dashed  away  at  race-horse  speed, 
walked  between  the  clefted  waves  of  Jordan's  swelling 
tide,  and  soon  marched  around  the  walls  of  Jericho  and 
shouted  till  they  fell.  Then,  responsive  to  the  bugle  call, 
I  marched  with  Joshua's  army  into  the  great  interior, 
stood  on  the  battle-field  of  Bethhoron,  where,  responsive 
to  the  mandate  of  Joshua,  the  sun  stood  still  over  Gibeon 
a»td  the  moon  over  the  valley  of  Aijalon,  prolonging  the 
day  till  he  could  end  his  battle  in  the  signal  defeat  of  all 
the  southern  armies  and  the  decapitation  of  thirty-one 
kings.  Then  I  followed  him  into  the  great  north,  with 
incessant  battles  and  constant  victories,  till  we  confronted 
the  combined  power  of  the  northern  armies  under  com- 
mand of  the  king  of  Hazor,  on  the  battle-field  of  Merom. 
There  they  all  went  down  in  blood,  giving  Joshua  the 
land,  which  he  divided  among  the  tribes  assembled  at 
Shiloh.  While  Moses  represented  the  law,  and  had  to 
die  in  the  wilderness,  lest  somebody  conclude  that  sauc- 
tification  is  by  good  works,  i.  e.,  keeping  the  law,  Aaron, 
the  high  priest,  had  also  to  die  in  the  wilderness,  lest 
people  should  believe  that  they  could  be  sanctified  by 
baptism,  sacrament  and  church  rites.  Miriam,  the  fire- 
baptized  evangelist,  must  die  in  the  wilderness,  too,  lest 
people  should  look  to  the  sanctified  preachers  for  the 
blessing.  But  Joshua  is  a  Hebrew  word  which  means 
Jesus,  whom  he  gloriously  symbolized.  Therefore  he 
alone  could  lead  them  through  the  Jordan  into  the  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey  and  abounding  in  corn  and 
wine.  N.  B.  All  I  have  here  imputed  to  Joshua  simply 
means  that  Jesus  does  it. 

Sanctification,  by  the  grace  of  God,  is  infinitely  more 
to  me  than  I  can  possibly  tell  you.  When  1  received  the 
Holy  Ghost,  He  gave  me  His  wonderful  freedom.    2  Cor. 


ioo  Autobiography   op 

5  :  17,  "Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  freedom." 
Sanctified  people  enjoy  the  very  freedom  of  God  Himself, 
who  is  free  to  do  everything  good  and  nothing  bad. 
The  sweetness  and  blessedness  of  this  freedom  is  heaven 
on  earth.  Well  do  we  sing,  "Prisons  would  palaces 
prove,  if  Jesus  would  dwell  with  me  there."  I  can 
neither  by  speech  nor  pen  approximate  the  absolute, 
ineffable  felicity  of  this  freedom.  It  puts  all  transitory 
things  into  final  and  total  eclipse.  Before  I  got  sancti- 
fied I  carried,  oh,  so  many  crushing  burdens.  Since  that 
notable  hour,  I  have  been  light  as  a  bird  of  Paradise,  not 
encumbered  with  a  solitary  burden.  Not  that  I  have 
none,  for  I  have  a  lost  world  on  my  heart,  with  all  the 
grand  and  absorbing  interest  of  God's  kingdom,  but 
Jesus  carries  all  of  my  burdens  and  me,  too.  He  gives 
me  sweet  blessedness  and  perfect  rest  in  His  arms,  and 
a  glorious  balloon  ride,  soaring  above  every  cloud, 
through  the  bright  impereon  where  is  the  Sun  of  right- 
eousness, who  knows  no  eclipse;  where  no  storm  clouds 
ever  rise  to  hide  my  Savior  from  my  eyes. 

I  am  so  sorry  for  my  dear  brethren  in  the  ministry, 
crushed  with  burdens  and  worn  with  toils  till  they  are 
prematurely  gray  and  go  into  superannuation  at  the 
very  time  they  ought  to  be  doing  the  best  preaching  of 
their  lives.  I  just  know  not  what  to  do  for  them.  If 
they  had  any  idea  what  Jesus  has  for  them,  they  would 
cut  off  right  hands  and  pluck  out  right  eyes,  gladly  and 
unhesitatingly,  to  get  it. 

The  Lord,  in  His  great  mercy,  gave  me  this  experience 
in  1868,  fifteen  years  before  the  Holiness  Movement 
crossed  the  Ohio  River.  During  that  time  I  had  very 
little  sympathy  appertaining  to  the  experience  in  my  own 
Conference.     The  preachers   much  appreciated   the   re- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  101 

vivals  which  everywhere  attended  my  ministry,  but  many 
of  them  pronounced  me  crazy  on  sanctification. 

On  one  occasion  when  they  opened  the  love  feast  on 
Sunday  morning,  I  was  the  first  to  tell  my  experience, 
not  only  of  conversion,  but  of  entire  sanctification.  Our 
excellent  brother,  Richard  Deering,  of  Louisville,  who, 
like  myself,  had  the  blessed  testimony,  faithfully  wit- 
nessed to  what  God  had  done  for  his  soul.  He  was  fol- 
lowed by  Brother  Grinstead,  of  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence, who  meekly  bore  witness  to  this  same  blessed  ex- 
perience. Then  followed  Dr.  H ,  who  antagon- 
ized our  testimony,  and  suggested  that  we  have  no  more 

on  that  line.     He  was  quickly  followed  by  Dr.  K , 

who  fully  corroborated  him  in  his  speech,  quite  con- 
demnatory of  our  testimony,  and  said  we  could  have  no 
more  of  them,  as  we  were  drawing  a  division  line  among 
the  preachers,  as  they  were  not  all  in  possession  of  that 
second  experience.  Then  the  brethren  who  did  not  claim 
sanctification  followed,  freely  antagonizing  the  two  doc- 
tors who  had  spoken  against  us,  frankly  observing  that 
if  we  had  an  experience  which  they  had  not  reached, 
they  wanted  us  to  tell  it,  so  that  they  might  have  the  ben- 
efit of  our  testimony  to  help  them  get  the  same.  So  at 
that  time  a  debate  sprang  up  among  the  unsanctified 
brethren,  two  of  them  attempting  to  have  the  breaks  put 
on  the  sanctified  testimonies,  and  others  urging  that  we 
take  all  we  can  get,  by  way  of  encouragement  to  those 
who  had  not  received  the  experience.  Then  the  leader 
of  the  meeting  pronounced  the  controversy  out  of  order, 
discontinued  it  and  ordered  them  to  begin  de  novo,  hum- 
bly and  freely  to  tell  what  God  had  done  for  their  souls. 
Then  they  broke  out  and  sang  a  good  old  Methodist  song. 
Meanwhile  I  went  and  sat  down  on  the  Lip  of  Dr.  H , 


102  Autobiography   of 

who  was  large  and  stout,  and,  putting  my  arms  around 
him  said :  "Brother  Jim,  I  love  you  better  than  ever." 
Then  the  tender-hearted  man  said,  "Godbey,  I  have  act- 
ed the  fool,  and  I  ask  your  pardon;  whenever  you  can,  I 
want  you  to  come  and  preach  in  my  church."  On  that 
occasion  we  had  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  Spirit  that 
characterizes  this  experience.  In  the  controversy,  not  one 
of  us  said  a  word  nor  had  any  inclination  to  do  so.  We 
all  kept  perfectly  sweet,  rejoicing  in  the  Lord  and  over- 
flowing with  love  for  the  brethren  who  antagonized  us. 
While  they  were  killing  our  Savior,  He  was  praying  for 
His  murderers.  Sanctification  takes  old  Adam  out  of 
you,  and  leaves  Jesus  to  reign  without  a  rival  in  the  heart 
and  life.  In  that  case  we  do  as  He  would  do  under  sim- 
ilar circumstances.  I  do  not  insinuate  in  this  that  it  frees 
us  from  the  liability  of  mistakes,  because  the  mind  is  not 
made  perfect  until  this  mortal  puts  on  immortality.  There 
fore  intellect,  memory  and  judgment  will  make  mistakes. 
This  perfection  is  simply  that  of  the  heart,  which,  in  the 
superabounding  grace  of  Christ  and  through  the  efficacy 
of  His  precious  blood,  is  made  perfect ;  while  the  mind 
and  body  are  still  encumbered  with  infirmities,  which  are 
only  eliminated  by  the  great  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
glorification,  when  this  mortal  puts  on  immortality. 

When  I  met  Brother  Donaldson,  the  pastor  of  the  meet- 
ing where  the  mother  in  Israel  begged  him  not  to  let  that 
"little  fop"  preach  any  more,  lest  he  ruin  the  revival,  in 
the  Conference,  he  came  to  me  and  threw  his  arms  around 
me  and  said,  "Are  you  not  W.  B.  Godbey?"  (there  are 
many  Godbeys  preaching).  I  responded  in  the  affirma- 
tive. Then  he  said,  "I  have  been  reading  your  revival 
reports  all  the  year  with  unutterable  astonishment,  to  see 
that   four   hundred   people   have   been   converted   under 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  103 

your  preaching.  I  got  bewildered  as  I  thought  the  sig- 
nature was  that  of  the  brother  who  preached  for  me  at 
Pleasant  Run,  and  how  such  preaching  ever  converted  so 
many  people  I  could  not  understand."  Says  I,  "Brother, 
1  the  man  you  heard  at  Pleasant  Run  is  dead  and  gone.  He 
lives  no  more.  You  now  meet  a  new  preacher,  who  re- 
tains the  old  name,  W.  B.  Godbey."  This  illustrates  the 
radical  revolution  which  sanctification  develops. 

The  reason  why  I  was  sent  to  Mackville  was  because 
when  the  Conference  ascertained  the  fact  that  I  had  a 
glorious  revival  everywhere  I  preached,  they  at  once  put 
th^ir  heads  together  in  the  Bishop's  Cabinet  to  send  me 
to  the  hardest  field  they  had ;  where  all  revival  effort  had 
failed.  This  was  the  case  at  Mackville,  where  there  had 
been  no  revival  in  a  dozen  years,  though  combined 
efforts  had  been  faithfully  put  forth.  Bishop  Kavanaugh 
had  dedicated  a  new  church  at  that  place  five  years  before 
and  not  a  soul  had  ever  been  converted  in  it.  They  made 
an  especial  effort  to  secure  my  appointment,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  I  invariably  had  revivals. 

We  had  no  evangelists  then  (1870).  I  am  the  oldest 
evangelist  in  the  South,  having  been  put  in  the  field  by 
Bishop  McTieyre  when  he  presided  over  our  Conference 
in  1884.  It  came  about  in  a  peculiar  way.  As  the  Con- 
ference had  no  evangelistic  appointment,  they  drifted  in- 
to the  habit  of  appointing  me  and  another  man  to  a  large 
circuit,  or  sometimes  two  thrown  together,  in  order  to 
liberate  me  for  evangelistic  work,  as  my  comrade  (and 
sometimes  they  gave  me  two  helpers),  could  stay  and 
hold  the  fort.  The  brethren  in  other  Conferences  got  to 
calling  me  so  urgently  that,  in  1883,  1  spent  all  of  my 
time  outside  of  my  own  Conference,  with  wonderful 
blessings  on  my  labors.     When  the  ensuing  Conference 


104 


Autobiography   of 


convened,  the  brethren  appealed  to  ^ishop  McTieyre  to 
confine  me  to  my  own  Conference,  stating  that  they  want- 
ed me  to  give  them  all  of  my  time,  as  they  needed  all  that 
I  could  do,  helping  them  in  their  revival  meetings.  Com 
sequently,  the  Bishop  sought  an  interview  with  me  before 
he  opened  the  Conference,  stating  the  request  of  the 
brethren  and  asking  me  what  I  thought  of  it.  I  said, 
"My  dear  brother,  I  am  here  to  go  where  you  send  me, 
and  am  perfectly  willing  to  be  restricted  to  the  Kentucky 
Conference ;  but  you  know  our  work  is  a  unit,  and  souls 
in  other  Conferences  are  worth  as  much  as  in  ours.  We 
must  also  take  the  'go'  which  our  Savior  put  in  His  com- 
mission in  its  full  force.  I  have  been  preaching  thirty 
years  in  this  Conference,  and  have  run  nearly  all  over 
it,  and  believe  I  will  be  more  efficient  for  God  on  new 
territory."  Then  he  asked  me  to  read  my  report,  which 
I  had  brought  to  read  before  the  Conference  according  to 
the  requirement  for  every  preacher.  In  the  providence  of 
God,  it  had  been  one  of  the  most  fruitful  years  of  my 
ministry,  and  all  of  it  outside  of  my  own  Conference. 
While  I  read  it,  my  tears  did  flow  unbidden.  In  this  I 
was  not  alone.  The  good  Bishop  well  did  his  part  of 
this  joyful  and  grateful  crying.  When  I  got  through, 
wiping  his  eyes,  he  said,  "Brother  Godbey,  I  am  not  the 
man  to  confine  you  to  this  Conference,  or  any  other.  I 
am  only  sorry  that  we  have  no  regular  evangelistic  ap- 
pointment which  I  can  give  you.  But  I  can  do  this,  I  can 
put  you  in  the  local  ranks,  with  the  distinct  understand- 
ing between  me  and  you  that  it  is  for  you  to  do  the  work 
of  an  evangelist."  So  then  and  there  he  took  me  out  of  any 
Conference  and  3cnt  me  to  the  whole  connection ;  thus 
taking  the  bridle  off  and  turning  me  loose  forever. 

For  a  long  time  I  confined  my  work  to  the  Southern 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  105 

Methodist  Connection,  much  to  my  financial  detriment, 
as,  during  those  times,  we  had  no  railroad  favors  but  had 
to  pay  full  fare,  whereas  the  great  North  was  wide  open 
to  me  at  half-fare.  I  continued  to  confine  my  evangelis- 
tic work  to  the  Southern  Methodist  Connection,  simply  be- 
cause my  membership  was  there,  till  the  calls  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  throughout  this  great  common- 
wealth bore  down  on  my  conscience,  and  I  felt  it  my  duty 
to  discriminate  no  longer  between  North,  South,  East 
and  West,  but,  like  Paul,  to  be  all  things  to  all  men,  that 
I  might  save  some.  As  the  years  have  rolled  on,  the  Lord 
has  continued  to  broaden  my  field  of  labor,  three  times 
permitting  me  to  preach  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa.  If 
I  could  live  on,  oh,  how  it  would  be  the  glory  of  my  soul 
to  superscribe  on  my  banner,  like  John  Wesley,  as  you  see 
on  his  memorial  sepulchre  in  Westminster  Abbey,  "The 
world  w  my  parish." 


Chapter  V. 

APOLOGY  TO  MY  BRETHREN  OF  THE  CAMP- 
BELLITE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Dear  Brethren: — 

This  book  is  a  surprise  to  me,  having  been  precipitated 
on  me  by  multitudes  of  people,  who  through  speech  and 
pen  in  many  different  countries  have  become  acquainted 
with  me,  and  so  importuned  me  to  write  my  autobiogra- 
phy before  I  pass  out  of  the  world,  that  I  actually  feel 
that  it  is  God's  will  for  me  to  do  it.  I  hereby  assure  you, 
as  we  shall  meet  at  the  judgment  bar,  that  I  love  you  with 
that  unspeakable,  perfect  love  which  God  has  given  me 
not  only  for  Himself,  but  for  all  the  people  of  His  world- 
wide creation.  Therefore  you  must  excuse  me  not  only 
for  the  mention  I  make  of  your  Church,  but  the  phrase- 
ology I  use.  I  was  born  and  reared  in  the  midst  of  your 
people,  constantly  associated  with  them  and  heard  them 
preach  perhaps  ten  times  as  much  as  all  other  denomina- 
tions together,  as  we  were  poor  and  I  was  a  hard  worker 
on  the  farm  off  in  the  hills  and  did  not  have  opportunity 
to  go  away  from  home,  and  your  people  did  the  preaching 
in  that  country.  I  promise  you  one  thing,  and  that  is,  to 
stick  close  to  the  facts  involved,  constantly  keeping  my 
eyes  on  the  judgment  bar,  where  I  shall  soon  meet  you 
all.  As  I  am  seventy-three  years  old  and  have  been 
preaching  fifty-three  years,  with  me  the  battle  is  over. 
I  would  rather  drop  dead  this  moment  than  to  misrep- 

106 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  107 

resent  you,  your  church,  or  anything  else.  The  events 
which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  in  my  biography 
in  connection  with  your  people  all  transpired. 

Your  people  have  undergone  a  radical  change  since 
that  time ;  in  fact,  they  have  abandoned  the  belligerent 
policy  which  uniformly  characterized  them,  throughout 
the  circle  of  my  acquaintance,  which  gradually  broadened 
out  till  it  took  in  all  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  lying 
south  of  Cincinnati,  and  largely  extended  over  the  Louis- 
ville Conference  in  the  western  portion  of  the  state.  I 
deeply  regret  my  absolute  necessity,  in  a  faithful  submis- 
sion of  my  biography,  of  freely  using  the  descriptive 
word,  "Campbellite,"  from  the  simple  fact  that  you  peo- 
ple discard  it  as  a  name  for  your  church  and  even  reject 
it  as  reproachful.  Let  me  here  certify  before  God  and 
all  the  people  who,  in  His  providence,  shall  ever  read  this 
book,  that  I  do  not  use  it  in  that  sense,  but  simply  as  a 
matter,  not  of  choice,  but  of  necessity.  There  is  no  other 
term  in  the  vast  vocabulary  of  the  English  language  with 
which  I  can  possibly  communicate  the  facts  involved,  as 
you  know  in  the  history  of  my  life  like  this,  it  will  not  do 
to  burden  it  with  circumlocutions.  This  book  will  be  read 
not  only  throughout  America,  but  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa 
and  Oceania,  as  I  have  travelled  in  all  these  lands  and  am 
well  known  to  the  Lord's  people  in  all  the  earth.  You 
know  that  if  I  were  to  use  another  term  except  Campbell- 
ite they  would  be  utterly  confused  and  not  understand  the 
facts  of  this  biography.  The  truth  of  it  is  that  you  make 
a  mistake  in  rejecting  that  adjective,  which  refers  to  one 
of  tbe  greatest  intellectualists  and  most  profound  schol- 
ars who  ever  lived  on  the  earth.  Like  all  others  since 
the  Apostles  went  to  Heaven,  he  did  not  claim  inspiration 
nor  infallibility,  and  was  not  free  from  mistakes,  to  which 


108  Autobiography   op 

we  are  all  liable.  I  do  not  think  you  ought  to  reflect  on 
me  for  the  free  use  of  words  which  historic  veracity 
and  fidelity  force  me  to  utilize  in  my  autobiography. 
When  you  read  it  just  remember  that  I  was  in  the  war 
which  swept  over  the  territory  of  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence from  my  earliest  recollection,  which  runs  back  about 
seventy  years.  That  war  wound  up  twenty  years  ago, 
and  you  are  not  in  it.  I  am  glad  your  people  have  dis- 
continued that  belligerent  policy,  which  characterized 
them  for  the  first  fifty  years  of  their  history  in  Kentucky. 
I  assure  you  I  am  not  to  blame  for  the  eighteen  de- 
bates in  which  I  was  a  contestant,  because  your  preachers 
forced  me  into  them.  I  was  preaching  the  Word  faith- 
fully, as  I  understood  it,  and  God  was  wonderfully  bles- 
sing His  precious  truth  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  when 
one  of  your  old  debators  wrote  to  me  challenge  after 
challenge,  to  meet  him  in  public  discussion  and  give  him 
a  chance  with  an  open  Bible  to  show  the  people  I  was 
wrong.  At  that  time,  though  some  of  my  Methodist 
brethren,  e.  g.,  Drs.  Miller,  Fitch  and  Ditzler,  had  held 
debates  with  your  brethren,  I  had  neither  attended  them 
nor  sympathized  with  the  course  they  were  pursuing.  I 
thought  the  thing  for  us  to  do  was  to  go  ahead  and  faith- 
fully preach  the  Word  of  God  instead  of  stopping  to  hold 
debates.  But  this  man  (Elder  William  Corn),  who  had 
already  held  a  number  of  debates  and  had  notoriety  in 
that  way,  after  sending  me  several  written  challenges, 
which  I  had  ignored,  feeling  that  was  the  best  way  to 
keep  out  of  the  controversy,  finally  came  to  my  meeting 
at  Barley  Chapel  in  Washington  County,  in  the  morning, 
when  a  great  multitude  not  only  filled  the  house  but 
crowded  around  wherever  they  could  hear,  and  asked  me 
to  preach  on  the  conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus,  meanwhile 


Rev.  Vv.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  109 

showing   the   difference   between   a    Campbellite   and   a 
Methodist.     This  I  did,  giving  the  spellbound  multitude 
two  hours,  ten  to  twelve  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  closing  with 
an  invitation  for  seekers,  to  which  many  responded  and 
came  to  the  altar.    A  number  were  gloriously  saved,  tes- 
tifying to  the  fact.     Among  them  was  one  of  Brother 
Corn's  members,  who  in  her  testimony  certified  that  she 
had  been  deceived,  thinking  she  was  a  Christian  when 
she  was  not.    It  was  an  old  style  rural  "basket  meeting," 
with  dinner  on  the  ground  and  the  meeting  continuing 
through  the  day,  therefore  we  could  take  our  time.    When 
we  were  about  to  adjourn  for  dinner,  Brother  Corn  asked 
permission  to  speak,  which  of  course  I  freely  granted.    He 
.stated  to  the  audience  that  I  was  preaching  error  and 
he  was  prepared  to  refute  me  and  relieve  them  of  error, 
if  I  would  give  him  a  chance.     He  then  stated  that  he 
had  sent  me  several  written  challenges  which  I  had  never 
answered.     Then  he  said,  fixing  his  attention  on  your 
humble  servant,  "I  here  and  now  repeat  all  of  my  chal- 
lenges which  I  have  sent  you,  and  in  the  presence  of  this 
audience  defy  you  to  accept  them."    I  turned  to  the  peo- 
ple and  asked  them  for  a  word  of  advice.    Then  unani- 
mously they  spoke  out  and  said,  "You  must  accept  his 
challenge;  meeting  and  giving  him  a  chance  to  refute  you 
if  he  can."    So  we  fixed  the  time  and  place,  to  gather  un- 
der a  great  beech  grove  where  the  Baptists  had  recently 
held  an  association  and  seated  the  grounds  for  a  great 
audience.      We   made   the   appointment   for   about   one 
month  from  that  date.    I  must  confess  I  was  very  sorry 
to  have  to  go  into  it ;  but  was  really  left  without  a  choice, 
there  being  no  alternative  but  cowardly  retreat,   which 
would  so  easily  have  damaged  the  cause  of  God,  as  al- 
ready about  four  hundred  people  had  been  gloriously 


no  Autobiography  of 

converted  in  my  meetings  in  that  country  and  the  fire  was 
spreading  in  all  directions. 

I  prepared  for  the  discussion  with  great  reluctance, 
feeling  that  I  had  better  be  preaching  the  Gospel,  but  you 
see  this  dear  man  would  not  let  me.  He  forced  me  to 
stop  and  debate  with  him.  About  two  thousand  people 
convened  at  the  time  and  place.  We  proceeded  with  the 
discussion,  in  which  he  was  an  old  warrior  and  I  but  a 
novice.  Rest  assured  the  fire  waxed  hotter  and  hotter, 
heavier  and  heavier,  as  we  delivered  alternate  speeches, 
in  which  we  recognized  God's  Word  as  the  only  author- 
ity ;  freely  using  other  good  books  as  collateral  testimony. 
By  the  time  the  debate  was  over,  I  was  a  radically 
changed  man  relative  to  that  subject.  I  went  into  it  being 
opposed  to  debates,  thinking  them  unnecessary  and  fear- 
ing that  they  were  productive  of  evil.  When  we  wound 
up,  I  was  in  favor  of  debates,  believing  they  did  good 
and  were  sometimes  really  necessary  to  the  faithful 
maintenance  of  God's  truth.  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
older  brethren  who  lived  in  those  times  will  censure  me 
for  my  references  to  their  predecessors  on  the  battle-field. 
The  most  of  those  old  warriors  have  laid  the  armor  down 
and  exchanged  the  tempest  of  war  for  the  Mount  of  Vic- 
tory. I  trow  that  I  will  receive  a  degree  of  harsh  criti- 
cism from  some  of  the  present  generation,  who  have 
never  smelled  gunpowder;  having  enlisted  after  the  bat- 
tles were  fought  and  the  victories  won  and  silence  was 
prevailing  on  the  field.  "Finally,  brethren,  farewell,  be 
perfect,  be  of  good  comfort,  be  of  the  same  mind,  live  in 
peace,  and  the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  yon." 

(2  Cor.  12:  n.) 

Tn  that  debate  with  Brother  Corn,  which  was  my  first, 

I   entered  with  great  reluctance,  as  he  was  an  old  war 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  iti 

horse  and  I  myself  but  a  beginner ;  besides,  I  had  always 
realized  conscientious  scruples  against  si...  proceedings, 
but  I  was  unutterably  surprised  at  the  weakness  of  his 
arguments,  which  I  found  so  easily  refuted.  As  I  then 
underwent  a  change  and  concluded  that  debates  are  nec- 
essary and  profitable,  I  then  unhesitatingly  accepted  all  of 
their  challenges,  and  as  the  years  rolled  on  I  participated 
in  eighteen  public  discussions ;  which  I  know  the  Lord 
did  wonderfully  bless  to  the  good  of  His  cause.  When 
the  Bible  speaks  of  debate  in  a  condemnatory  way,  it 
means  contention  and  strife  in  colloquial  circles ;  i.  e.,  a 
disputatious  predilection  which  mars  the  peace  and  har- 
mony of  people  in  families  and  social  groups  into  which 
they  are  thrown  by  the  providence  of  God.  Our  Savior 
and  the  Apostles,  especially  Paul,  frequently  engaged  in 
disputations  with  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  who  came 
around  them  whithersoever  they  went,  like  the  lightning 
on  the  skirts  of  a  cloud,  watching  and  waiting  a  pretext 
for  assault.  Martin  Luther  met  the  Pope  and  his  cardi- 
nals in  the  city  of  Worms  and  engaged  with  them  in  pub- 
lic debate. 

These  discussions  were  conducted  in  a  perfectly  orderly 
way.  Each  contestant  selected  his  own  moderator,  who 
was  invariably  a  prominent  preacher  in  his  denomination. 
Those  two  moderators  selected  the  umpire,  who  sat  be- 
tween them,  took  charge  of  the  audience  and  kept  order, 
and  abo  gave  the  deciding  vote  between  the  moderators 
when  they  differed  in  any  question  of  interest  to  which 
their  attention  was  called.  The  umpire  was  not  a  member 
of  either  of  the  churches  represented  in  the  debate  and 
was  generally  a  lawyer,  judge,  or  in  some  way  a  very 
prominent  citizen.  He  called  the  house  to  order,  called 
on  somebody  to  pray,  and  read  the  proposition  for  dis 


1 12  Autobiography   of 

cussion,  stating  the  attitude  of  the  contestants,  as  to 
affirmation  and  negation.  The  audiences  were  invariably 
very  large  and  the  interest  always  intense ;  the  debate  oc- 
cupied four  hours  each  day,  from  ten  to  twelve  A.  M.  and 
from  two  to  four  P.  M.  Meanwhile  the  preachers  of  the 
contesting  churches  always  preached  every  night  altern- 
ately either  with  other.  As  above  mentioned,  I  was  driv- 
en into  these  debates  by  whip  and  lash  and  not  of  my  own 
choice. 

When  I  was  a  little  child,  Alexander  Campbell  came 
into  that  country  and  preached  with  great  efficiency,  cap- 
turing some  Baptist  churches  and  dividing  others,  as  he 
had  been  a  Baptist  preacher.  But  he  had  given  up  their 
spiritual  doctrines  and  was  preaching  water  regeneration 
with  all  his  might.  In  his  "Christian  System,"  a  book 
which  I  have  read  very  carefully,  he  says,  "Immersion  is 
regeneration."  He  was  a  man  of  great  learning  and  in- 
tellect and  led  the  people  after  him  by  great  multitudes. 
His  people  were  exceedingly  enthusiastic,  preaching  bap- 
tism for  the  remission  of  sins,  as  their  great  dogma;  and 
at  the  same  time  pouring  condemnation  on  all  who  did 
not  fall  in  with  them.  Campbell's  name  selected  for  his 
people  was  "Disciples,"  certainly  exceedingly  appropriate. 
They  afterwards  adopted  the  simple  name  "Christians," 
which  they  used  in  an  exclusive  sense,  unchristianizing 
all  that  did  not  join  them ;  in  fact,  usurping  the  name 
which  is  common  to  the  lord's  people  in  all  the  earth, 
and  hence  when  used  alone  incompetent  to  designate  any 
especial  organization. 

As  my  father  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  I  had  a  good 
opportunity  to  get  acquainted  with  these  current  events ; 
besides,  I  was  a  great  meeting-goer  myself  and  a  close 
observer  with  an  extraordinary  memory.     Therefore  you 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  113 

may  rest  assured  that  I  am  not  mistaken  in  what  you  read 
in  this  book.  Their  attitude  was  strictly  and  invariably 
controversial  and  belligerent.  They  always  preached  on 
baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,  utterly  denouncing  ev- 
erything but  immersion.  This  one  scripture,  "Repent 
and  be  baptized  for  the  remission  of  your  sins,"  (Acts 
2:  38),  they  constantly  used,  construing  "for"  in  the 
sense  of  "in  order  to,"  and  making  it  the  prominent  con- 
dition of  remission  of  sins.  We  say  a  man  was  hangeJ 
for  murder  and  do  not  mean  that  he  was  hanged  in  order 
that  he  might  commit  murder,  because  he  had  already 
committed  it.  The  correct  translation  of  this  passage, 
as  you  see  in  the  Revised  Version,  is  "unto  the  remission 
of  sins ;"  which  water  baptism  symbolizes,  and  therefore 
has  reference  to. 

N.  B.  Luke  wrote  the  Gospel  that  bears  his  name  and 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  as  dictated  by  Paul.  In  the  for- 
mer, (24:  47),  we  have  Luke's  commission,  under  which 
Peter  was  preaching  on  the  day  of  Pentecost.  "To  preach 
in  His  name  repentance  unto  the  remission  of  sins  to  all 
nations — beginning  from  Jerusalem."  Here  we  see  that 
the  commission  under  which  Peter  was  preaching  offers 
remission  of  sins  to  all  nations,  on  condition  of  repent- 
ance, saying  nothing  about  baptism,  which  Peter  men- 
tions in  a  hortatory  way  as  a  confirmation  of  their  re- 
pentance. The  very  fact  that  baptism  is  not  mentioned 
in  Luke  24:  47,  where  we  have  repentance  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins  to  be  preached  to  all  nations,  forever  set- 
tles the  question  that  it  is  not  a  condition  of  remission, 
as  the  Bible  does  not  contradict  itself.  Salvation  is  a 
pure  spirituality  and  not  a  temporality.  It  is  immaterial 
an  1  not  material.  Therefore  when  you  make  anything 
which  is  physical  and  materialistic  a  condition  of  salva- 


H4  Autobiography   of 

tion,  you  run  the  subject  into  idolatry,  and  sidetrack  the 
efforts  of  the  soul,  however  earnest,  away  from  Christ, 
thus  defeating  the  end  in  view. 

The  preaching  of  the  Campbellites  from  my  earliest 
recollection  was  constantly  belligerent  and  condemnatory 
of  all  who  did  not  join  them  and  take  immersion.  They 
denounced  all  experimental  religion,  ridiculing  and  mak- 
ing all  manner  of  fun  of  it ;  covering  it  with  burlesque,  in 
order  to  arouse  the  prejudice  of  the  people  against  it.  1 
have  attended  many  a  protracted  meeting  with  those  peo- 
ple, and  certify  (for  I  learned  their  curriculum  till  I  al- 
ways knew  what  was  coming),  that  they  invariably  began 
with  a  labored  effort  to  prove  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  experimental  religion  ;  at  the  same  time  bringing  bur- 
lesque and  sarcasm  in  all  possible  availability  to  conserve 
the  end  in  view,  i.  e.,  to  get  all  the  members  they  could. 
When  they  had  preached  several  sermons  directly  against 
all  spirituality  in  every  form  and  phase,  till  they  thought 
they  had  convinced  the  sinners  that  there  was  no  such 
a  thing  as  finding  the  Lord  and  receiving  conscious  exper- 
imental salvation,  then  they  would  change  their  tactics 
and  preach  Hell  and  damnation  with  all  their  might,  at 
the  same  time  assuring  the  people  that  if  they  would  quit 
their  sins,  join  the  Church  and  receive  baptism  for  the 
remission  of  their  sins,  the  whole  matter  would  then  be 
settled  forever  and  they  would  then  have  nothing  to  do 
but  to  keep  the  moral  commandments.  When  they  suc- 
ceeded in  convincing  the  people  that  they  were  correct, 
then  of  course  they  would  begin  to  join,  one  moving  an- 
other and  the  influence  spreading  till  they  would  sweep 
in  quite  a  multitude,  as  they  believed  that  they  were 
liable  to  drop  into  Hell  before  they  were  immersed  for 
the  remission  of  their  sins ;  therefore  they  always  rushed 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  115 

away  to  the  creek  and  immersed  them.  From  the  simple 
fact  that  I  know  that  the  whole  procedure  is  untrue  and 
has  deceived  millions  who  are  now  in  eternity,  I  kindly 
dictate  these  pages.  If  you  will  reflect  a  moment,  you 
will  know  that  this  whole  system  is  radically  false.  You 
know  that  if  it  were  true  our  Savior  would  never  have 
come  down  from  Heaven,  bled  and  died  on  the  cross  to 
redeem  us  from  sin,  death  and  Hell.  There  was  as  much 
water  in  the  world  to  immerse  people  before  He  came  as 
since;  they  had  Noah's  flood.  If  the  people  could  be 
saved  by  obedience,  as  these  people  preach,  you  know 
they  had  the  law  from  the  beginning.  Therefore  you  see 
how  they  not  only  minify,  but  utterly  ignore,  the  work  of 
Christ. 

Their  whole  system  consists  in  a  reflection  on  and  vili- 
fication of  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  minification  of  the  atone- 
ment and  a  practical  ignoring  of  our  blessed  Savior  and 
His  mighty  works  in  the  salvation  of  souls.  In  their 
preaching,  they  boldly  claimed  to  be  the  only  Christian 
Church  in  the  world,  following  the  Bible  as  their  only 
guide,  while  other  churches  followed  their  creeds.  Oh, 
I  have  so  often  seen  them  hold  up  the  Methodist  disci- 
pline and  denounce  it  with  the  bitterest  condemnation, 
drawing  the  most  enviable  contrast  with  the  Bible  and 
telling  the  people  they  were  the  only  church  that  had  no 
creed  and  followed  the  Bible  alone.  Of  course  we  have  no 
business  with  any  creed,  except  the  New  Testament, 
which  ought  to  be  the  creed  of  Christendom.  The  Old 
Testament  is  all  right,  true  and  precious,  but  we  are  not 
living  under  that  dispensation.  Therefore,  while  we  duly 
appreciate  it  for  the  wonderful  truth  it  contains,  we  adopt 
the  New  as  our  only  guide,  lest  we  get  side-tracked  away 


n6  Autobiography   o? 

from  the  glorious  Pentecostal  Dispensation,  which  the 
New  Testament  launched  and  perpetuates. 

While  these  people  constantly  resorted  to  those  strate- 
gic vilifications  of  discipline,  and  to  boastful  contrasts 
with  the  Bible,  which  was  utter  sophistry,  they  were  the 
most  rigid  creedists  in  the  whole  country,  contending  con- 
stantly for  their  little  creed,  which  contained  but  one 
item,  "Immersion  for  the  remission  of  sins."  Creed  is 
from  the  Latin  word  credo,  to  believe,  therefore  you  may 
have  a  creed,  written  or  unwritten.  All  the  preaching  I 
heard  them  do  during  the  twenty  years  I  lived  with  them 
was  on  this  belligerent,  challenging  line ;  incessantly  tell- 
ing the  people  that  they  were  ready  to  meet  us  face  to 
face  and  with  an  open  Bible  prove  the  truth  of  their  doc- 
trine and  the  falsity  of  ours,  and  the  very  fact  that  we  did 
not  meet  them  was  demonstrative  truth  that  we  were 
afraid ;  because  we  knew  that  the  Bible  was  against  us. 
My  father  was  an  unlearned  Methodist  preacher,  preach- 
ing the  true,  experimental,  Holy  Ghost  religion  with  all 
his  might.  They  were  constantly  after  him,  fighting  and 
challenging  him  and  all  others  who  believed  in  experi- 
mental religion  to  debate  with  them.  He  was  afraid  of 
them;  besides,  he  had  conscientious  scruples  against  de- 
bates, which  he  transmitted  to  me. 

Thirty  years  ago  we  had  two  great  men  in  American 
Methodism — Bishop  Simpson  in  the  North  and  Bishop 
Pierce  in  the  South.  In  the  providence  of  God,  the  latter 
came  to  our  Conference.  During  his  abode  with  us,  the 
brethren  told  him  about  the  belligerent  policy  of  the 
Campbellites,  fighting  us  all  the  time,  denouncing  experi- 
mental religion  as  false  and  challenging  us  to  meet  them, 
not  only  in  defense  of  our  Holy  Ghost  religion,  but  the 
doctrine  of  baptism  as  we  held  and  practiced  it.    He  asked 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  117 

us  why  we  did  not  accept  the  challenge  and  meet  them  ac- 
cording to  their  incessant  bantering,  in  open  controversy, 
assuring  us  that  we  ought  to  be  ready  at  all  times  "to 
contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints."  (Jude  3.)  Hitherto  the  brethren,  like  my  fath- 
er, had  had  conscientious  scruples  against  public  debates, 
lest  they  might  stir  up  strife  and  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit. 
But  after  this  deliverance  of  the  Bishop,  the  brethren 
somewhat  changed  their  minds  and  Drs.  Miller  and  Fitch, 
Miner  and  your  humble  servant,  and  some  others,  en- 
tered the  controversial  arena  and  kept  the  sword  un- 
sheathed until  the  war  was  over,  and  the  victory  won. 

In  my  case,  it  was  simply  a  matter  of  military  necessity. 
From  the  very  hour  that  the  Lord  sanctified  me  in  1868, 
He  turned  me  into  a  cyclone  of  fire,  and  wherever  I 
preached  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  the  people,  and  a  glori- 
ous revival  broke  out.  There  was  at  that  time  a  vast  open 
field  for  Holy  Ghost  revivals  in  the  Methodist  Churches, 
as  they  had  so  long  been  browbeaten  and  intimidated  by 
the  belligerent  preaching  of  the  Campbellites,  constantly 
challenging  them  for  debate  and  ridiculing  the  mourner's 
bench,  that  the  people  became  much  prejudiced  against  it, 
and  the  preachers  had  no  courage  to  invite  them  to  it. 
Meanwhile  it  seemed  that  the  Campbellites  would  get 
all  the  people  into  their  Church  and  we  would  have  none. 
Therefore  Bishop  Kavanaugh  advised  us  to  invite  them 
to  join  the  Church  as  seekers,  rather  than  not  get  them, 
and  take  chances  afterward  to  get  them  saved.  Conse- 
quently it  just  seemed  that  Holy  Ghost  religion  would 
actually  die  out  of  the  Methodist  Church ;  therefore  the 
Lord  sanctified  me  and  gave  me  the  blessed  Holy  Ghost 
and  I  stood  alone  in  the  Conference  witnessing:  to  that 


n8  Autobiography   of 

blessed  experience ;  as  it  was  fifteen  years  before  the 
Movement  reached  us,  in  1883. 

My  brethren,  far  from  persecuting  me,  gladly  availed 
themselves  of  the  good  work  which  the  Lord  was  doing 
through  my  humble  instrumentality.  As  I  was  flooded 
with  the  Spirit  and  the  fire,  I  just  could  not  run  revivals 
on,  the  church-joining  line,  as  my  brethren  were  gener- 
ally doing.  I  had  to  unfurl  the  banner  and  beard  the  lion 
in  his  den,  preaching  Holy  Ghost  religion  like  lightning, 
and,  of  course,  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  exposing 
the  silly  sophistries  of  Campbellism,  which  had  so  long 
been  preached  by  those  unconverted  preachers,  showing 
neither  distinction  nor  mercy,  but  keeping  Hell  constantly 
uncapped  and  shaking  the  unconverted  over  it  with  Her- 
culean hand.  Therefore  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  the  peo- 
ple in  mighty  conviction,  crowding  my  altars  day  and 
night.  Meanwhile  souls  were  constantly  passing  from 
death  to  life.  As  I  incessantly  showed  up  the  devil's  de- 
lusions, hallucinating  people  with  water  baptism  and 
church  membership  as  substitutes  for  clear,  radical, 
know-so,  experimental  salvation,  hosts  of  church  mem- 
bers crowded  the  altar,  and  many  of  the  Campbcllites 
came  constantly  seeking  and  finding  the  Lord.  After 
this  experience  they  always  left  their  Church,  in  which 
they  had  fought  experimental  religion  with  all  their 
might,  and  joined  the  Methodists  or  the  Baptists. 

I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  Baptists  in  all  of  that  coun- 
try, like  the  Methodists,  suffered  so  terribly  at  the  hands 
of  the  Campbellites  that  they  rallied  with  me  without  a 
single  exception,  fighting  heroically,  and  frequently  get- 
ting a  large  share  of  the  converts,  whom  I  had  received 
into  their  Church  right  there  in  my  meetings.  As  the 
Holy  Ghost  so  powerfully  fell  upon  the  people,  and  hon- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  119 

ored  His  precious  truth  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  all  sorts 
of  religious  people  who  believed  in  the  Holy  Ghost  rallied 
with  me.  Meanwhile  the  Campbellite  Church  was  losing 
members  all  the  time,  who  got  converted,  crowded  our 
altars,  and  then  joined  the  church  that  believed  and 
preached  Holy  Ghost  religion.  Amid  this  state  of  things, 
they  literally  forced  me  to  debate  with  them.  I  had  to  do 
it  in  order  to  protect  the  cause  and  establish  my  converts 
in  experimental  religion,  which  had  been  denounced  and 
vilified  for  a  whole  generation.  Therefore  we  just  had 
to  make  a  new  departure  on  the  Holy  Ghost  line,  which 
utterly  upset  Campbellism. 

There  are  now  four  times  as  many  Methodists  in  Ohio 
as  in  Kentucky.  Did  you  know  that  Bishop  Asbury  es- 
tablished the  Methodist  Church  in  Kentucky,  and  came 
from  there  over  to  Ohio  and  established  it?  Now  how 
do  you  account  for  the  great  difference?  It  is  the  simple 
fact  that  Campbell's  doctrine  took  better  in  Kentucky 
than  in  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  It  is  a  notorious 
fact  that  the  Campbellite  Church  was  built  up  in  Ken- 
tucky by  taking  in  the  children  of  the  Methodists  and 
Baptists,  who  really  had  that  state  before  the  arrival  of 
Campbell ;  with  the  exception  of  a  few  Presbyterians.  As 
I  preached  everywhere  in  that  state  during  the  first  thirty 
years  of  my  ministry,  I  became  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
the  Campbellite  Church,  which  predominated  in  the  blue 
grass  region,  was  constituted  of  Methodist  and  Baptist 
families  which  they  had  captured  in  their  sins,  by  preach- 
ing that  easy  water  salvation.  Of  course  it  is  easy,  be- 
cause they  only  run  down  stream.  This  follows  as  a  log- 
ical sequence,  because  they  positively  reject  experimental 
religion  and  fight  the  Holy  Ghost  and  all  His  fire ;  with- 


120  Autobiography   op 

out  which  they  cannot  posibly  stem  the  current  and  run 
up  stream. 

In  1873  the  Kentucky  Conference  sent  me  to  preside 
over  my  home  district  in  which  I  was  born  and  reared, 
and  where  my  father  had  preached  for  fifty  years,  amid 
a  constant  war  with  water  regeneration,  and  with  inces- 
sant challenges  for  debate  ringing  in  the  air  on  all  sides. 
Meanwhile  the  Baptists,  who  were  as  interested  in  Holy 
Ghost  religion  as  the  Methodists,  more  frequently  en- 
tered into  public  discussion  with  them.  Their  champions 
boastingly  challenged  the  whole  world  to  meet  them  face 
to  face  and  refute  their  water  theology.  As  I  knew  the 
war  had  been  there,  hot  and  heavy,  for  more  than  a  gen- 
eration, and  as  my  preaching  would  certainly  add  fuel  to 
the  flame,  I  deemed  it  pertinent  to  cut  the  work  short  in 
righteousness.  Therefore  I  advertised  in  the  secular  pa- 
pers circulating  throughout  my  district,  my  acceptance 
of  all  the  challenges  that  had  been  made  or  should  be 
made.  These  debates  occupied  four  to  eight  days,  and 
great  audiences  attended  and  listened  spellbound. 

My  first  debate  was  in  Somerset,  occupying  eight  days 
and  afterward  at  Highland,  Lincoln  County,  with  the 
same  man,  Elder  Joseph  Ballew,  who  not  only  boldly  ad- 
vocated all  of  their  water  doctrines  but  denied  the  direct 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  heart,  and  in  one  of 
his  propositions  affirmed  that  a  sinner  had  no  right  to  pray, 
as  that  was  the  prerogative  of  citizens  only  and  every 
sinner  was  an  alien  until  he  was  immersed  for  the  re- 
mission of  his  sins — that  made  him  a  citizen  of  God's 
kingdom  and  conferred  on  him  the  right  to  petition  the 
King,  i.  c,  to  pray. 

I  also  had  a  debate  of  eight  days  in  Mount  Vernon, 
Rockcastle   County,   with   Elder   Kelly,   and   another   in 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  121 

Estill  County,  with  Elder  Harding,  and  two  discussions 
with  Elder  Briney.  These  debates  at  the  different  places 
covered  the  same  ground,  they  denying  and  laboring  to 
disprove  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  heart,  the 
right  of  a  sinner  to  pray,  and  experimental  religion,  and 
at  the  same  time  enforcing  all  of  their  water  doctrines 
with  every  forcible  argument.  They  affirmed  that  Christ- 
ian baptism  is  for  the  remission  of  sins.  I  remember 
Elder  Harding  had  it  written  in  large,  brilliant  letters 
over  the  pulpit  for  everybody  to  see  and  read,  while  he 
felt  sure  that  he  could  prove  it  beyond  the  possibility  of  a 
doubt.  As  he  was  in  the  affirmative,  of  course  the  onus 
proband,  i.  e.,  burden  of  proof,  devolved  upon  him.  With 
great  force  and  emphasis  he  delivered  his  oration,  occu- 
pying a  solid  hour.  Then  I  followed  him  with  an  hour 
in  the  negative.  As  the  people  had  listened  spellbound 
to  his  entire  discourse,  I  began  by  eulogizing  it  and  stat- 
ing that  it  was  able  and  edifying  and  that  I  had  but  one 
objection  to  it.  Then  the  people  stared  their  eyes  open, 
thinking  that  I  was  just  about  to  get  converted  to  Camp- 
bellism,  but  when  I  told  them  what  my  objection  was,  that 
it  was  this,  that  "There  is  no  truth  in  it,"  their  counte- 
nances fell.  I  proceeded  at  once  and  had  no  trouble  to 
make  good  what  I  had  said  and  to  show  clearly  that  his 
great  and  brilliant  speech  was  actually  destitute  of  truth. 
Argument  1.  I  began  on  his  proposition,  "Christian 
baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins."  I  proved  the  propo- 
sition false  because  it  is  self-contradictory ;  no  one  can  be 
a  Christian  and  have  any  sins  to  be  forgiven,  as  every 
unforgiven  person  is  a  sinner  and  not  a  Christian.  To 
make  the  proposition  logical,  you  would  have  to  change  it 
so  as  to  read,  "Sinner's  baptism  is  for  the  remission  of 
sins."    But  the  trouble  in  that  case  is  that  there  is  no  sin- 


122  Autobiography   of 

ner's  baptism  known  in  the  Bible,  as  baptism  is  God's 
mark  which  He  puts  on  His  own  sheep  and  never  on 
Satan's  goats.  Then  I  took  his  arguments  in  the  order  in 
which  he  had  presented  them  and  clearly  showed  their 
utter  falsity,  e.  g.,  "Repent  and  be  baptised  unto  the  re- 
mission of  your  sins,"  (Acts  2:  38),  and  not  in  order  to, 
as  he  construed  it.  Then  I  showed  from  Luke's  com- 
mission, under  which  Peter  was  preaching,  as  Luke  wrote 
both  his  Gospel  and  the  Acts  as  dictated  by  Paul,  (Luke 
24:  47),  that  repentance  unto  the  remission  of  sins  should 
be  preached  to  all  nations  in  His  name,  beginning  at  Je- 
rusalem. In  both  of  these  passages  we  have  eis  aphesin 
toon  amartioon,  unto  the  remission  of  your  sins.  We 
have  this  same  statement  in  both  passages  precisely,  while 
in  the  commission  Luke  does  not  mention  baptism,  but 
only  repentance  as  the  condition  of  remission  of  sins  for 
all  the  heathen  world.  In  Acts  2 :  38,  where  your  Eng- 
lish says,  "be  baptized,"  you  have  it  in  the  second  person 
plural,  co-ordinate  with  repent,  whereas  the  Greek  is  in 
the  third  person  singular,  and  agrees  with  the  distribu- 
tive pronoun  ekastos.  The  simple  meaning  is,  "All  ye  re- 
pent unto  the  remission  of  your  sins."  This  takes  in  the 
whole  multitude.  Then  follows,  "And  let  each  one  of  you 
be  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ."  Every  pro- 
noun has  an  antecedent.  Here  the  antecedent  ekastos — 
each  one — is  the  subject  of  metanoiasate — repent.  All 
who  repented  received  the  remission  of  their  sins  accord- 
ing to  Luke's  commission,  (24:  47).  Then  each  one  who 
had  repented  and  received  the  remission  of  sins,  Peter  ex- 
horted to  get  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  thus 
publicly  confessing  Him. 

Argument  2.     "He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
he  smied,   but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned." 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  123 

(Mark  16:  16.)     This  was  the  basis  of  his  second  argu- 
ment in  order  to  prove  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins. 
The  solution  of  it  is  very  simple  and  easy.    A  school  boy 
will  readily  understand  it.     The  Bible  tells  us  of  a  bap- 
tism for  the  soul  which  our  Savior  gives,  ard  another  for 
the  body  which  the  preacher  gives.    The  pronouns  in  this 
sentence  must  refer  to  the  human  soul  or  body  for  their 
antecedent.     Let  us  try  them  in  their  application  to  the 
body.     If  that  is  correct,  then  the  body  believes  and  is 
baptized  and  saved.    You  see  that  application  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  the  true  one,  because  the  body  cannot  believe 
anything.    It  is  as  destitute  of  faith  as  a  tree.    Therefore 
we  are  certain  that  it  does  not  mean  bodily  faith.    Then 
let  us  see  about  the  salvation.    Does  it  mean  body  salva- 
tion?   This  is  impossible,  because  the  body  of  the  Christ- 
ian dies  just  as  does  the  sinner's.    Therefore  it  does  not 
mean  body  salvation.     Now,  as  it  does  not  mean  body 
faith   or  body   salvation,   it  cannot  mean  body  baptism, 
from  the  simple  fact  that  the  same  thing  believes,  and  is 
baptized  and  saved.     Now,  as  you  see  it  cannot  mean 
body  baptism,  it  must  mean  that  of  the  soul ;  therefore  the 
solution  of  the  problem  becomes  easy  and  simple.     The 
soul  believes  on  Jesus  and  He  saves  it  and  baptizes  it; 
that  is  all  it  ever  did  mean  or  ever  can.     This  conclusion 
is  abundantly  confirmed  by  the  negative  clause,  "He  that 
believetk  not  shall  be  damned."     If  the  baptism  of  the 
body  were  necessary  to  salvation,  it  would  read,  "He  that 
believeth  not  and  is  not  baptized  shall  be  damned."    The 
omission  of  baptism  in  the  negative  clause  is  a  confirma- 
tion of  the  conclusion  that  it  is  spiritual ;  as  in  that  case, 
it  is  impossible  for  a  soul  to  receive  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  until  it  believes  on  Jesus;  because  He  alone 


124  Autobiography   of 

can  give  it,  and  it  is  certain  He  never  docs  give  it  to  an 
unbeliever. 

Argument  3.  "When  the  longsuffcring  of  God  waited 
in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  being  prepared  in 
which  few,  that  is  eight  souls,  were  saved  through  the 
ivater,  which  antitype  baptism  doth  now  save  us,  not  the 
putting  away  the  filth  of  the  flesh,  but  the  seeking  of  a 
good  conscience  tozvard  God."  (1  Pet.  3:  20-21.)  You  see. 
a  correct  reading  of  it  really  takes  away  all  of  the  force 
which  the  Campbellites  put  upon  it.  They  lay  great 
stress  on  the  statement,  "Saved  by  water,"  when  every 
Bible  reader  well  knows  that  Noah's  temporal  salvation, 
which  is  here  meant,  was  by  keeping  out  of  the  water. 
The  most  simple  and  correct  translation  of  dia  hudatos 
is  "through  the  water."  The  floods  were  beneath  the  ark 
in  swelling  seas,  and  above  in  pouring  rains,  and  Noah 
went  up  through  these  waters,  above  and  below  and  all 
around  him,  passing  safely  through  into  the  post-diluvian 
world.  Where  the  English  Version  says,  "like  figure," 
the  word  which  Peter  used  is,  "antitype,"  a  pure  Greek 
word,  slightly  Anglicized  from  anitupon.  The  rule  is  to 
transfer  every  word  which  has  been  adopted  into  the  Eng- 
lish language,  instead  of  translating  it.  This  passage,  like 
the  others,  is  plain  and  simple.  Wate*r  is  one  of  the  types 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  throughout  the  Bible.  Therefore  when 
Peter  says  the  antitype  baptism  does  not  save  us,  it  simply 
means  that  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  is  the 
antitype  of  water  baptism,  now  saves.  Then  Peter  kindly 
fortifies  us  against  the  dangerous  delusion  of  water  re- 
generation, stating  that  it  is  not  putting  away  the  filth 
of  the  flesh,  i.  e.,  not  water  baptism,  that  does  ceremoni- 
ally purify  us  from  the  filth  of  depravity,  which  is  the 
word  here  used.     So  Peter  informs  us  that  it  is  not  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  125 

mere  outward  symbol,  but  that  it  is  the  seeking  of  a 
good  conscience.  The  grand  desideratum  of  every  true 
Christian  is  entire  sanctification,  which  takes  away  that 
"filth  of  depravity"  here  mentioned  and  gives  us  a  clean 
heart,  like  Adam  had  before  he  fell,  and  makes  our 
conscience  good.  So  long  as  we  have  this  hereditary 
depravity,  i.  e.,  the  filth  of  the  flesh,  i.  e.,  the  carnal  mind, 
our  conscience  condemns  it,  therefore  we  never  do  re- 
ceive this  pure  conscience,  void  of  offense  toward  God 
and  man,  till  we  receive  this  glorious  antitype  baptism, 
which  Jesus  gives  in  sin-consuming  flames,  exterminating 
the  "filth  of  the  flesh"  and  making  your  "conscience 
good"  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Argument  4.  John  3:5:  "Jesus  responded,  Truly, 
truly,  I  say  unto  thee,  unless  any  one  may  be  born  of 
water  and  the  Spirit,  he  is  not  able  to  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  God."  I  once  read  a  little  book,  written  by 
one  of  their  preachers,  under  the  title,  "Methodism  Not 
Christianity,"  in  which  the  author  expounded  this  along 
with  their  other  favorite  passages,  using  it  in  the  sup- 
port of  their  great  doctrine  of  baptismal  remission.  In 
his  exposition  he  urged  the  people  to  come  along  and  get 
immersed  in  the  water  and  give  themselves  no  concern 
about  the  spiritual  birth,  resting  assured  that  God  would 
attend  to  it,  and  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  see  that  the 
water  birth  was  all  right.  Of  course  this  was  calculated 
to  lull  the  people  to  sleep  in  the  cradle  of  carnal  security. 
Satan  uses  such  men  to  sing  lullabies  over  souls  till  he 
can  dump  them  into  Hell. 

If  you  will  read  on,  the  very  next  chapter  of  John's 
Gospel  will  explain  the  statement  "born  of  water."  When 
Jesus  was  preaching  to  the  Samaritan  woman,  He  said 
ten  times  as  much  about  water  as  he  did  in  the  sermon 


126  Autobiography   op 

to  Nicodemus;  she  all  the  time  thinking  that  He  meant" 
the  water  then  sparkling  in  Jacob's  well,  but  He  fully 
relieved  her  mind  by  plainly  notifying  her  that  He  has 
no  allusion  to  that  temporal  water,  but  means  the  water 
of  life  (verse  n).  You  will  certainly  let  Jesus  define 
His  words ;  consequently  you  conclude  that  it  means  the 
water  of  life,  which  every  soul  born  of  the  Spirit  re- 
ceives for  the  first  time  and  continues  to  drink  of  for- 
ever. 

Argument  5.  Acts  22:16:  "Having  arisen,  be  bap- 
tized and  wash  away  thy  sins,  calling  upon  His  name." 
Here  Ananias  exhorts  Paul  to  receive  baptism  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  and  wash  away  his  sins,  calling  on  His 
name.  The  Greek  epikalesamenos  is  the  regular  word 
for  prayer  used  throughout  the  Bible.  Romans  10:13: 
"Every  one  who  may  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall 
be  saved."  Here  is  the  very  identical  word  used  in  Acts 
22 :  16,  and  salvation  is  positively  promised  to  every  hu- 
man being  who  does  it.  Therefore  Paul's  case  is  no  ex- 
ception to  God's  universal  plan  of  salvation  in  answer  to 
prayer.  Paul,  like  every  other  sinner,  got  his  sins  washed 
away  by  prayer.  Of  course  baptism  is  a  smybolic  wash- 
ing; the  water  applied  to  the  body  symbolizing  the  blood 
applied  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  human  spirit.  The 
idea  that  water  literally  washed  away  Paul's  sins  is 
heathenish  in  the  extreme.  I  saw  the  poor  heathens  in 
India  washing  in  the  holy  waters,  thinking  they  could 
thereby  expurgate  their  sins.  No  one  can  read  the 
Pauline  Scriptures  and  believe  that  his  sins  were  washed 
away  in  the  water  of  baptism.  Romans  3  :  28 :  "For  zve 
conclude  that  a  man  is  justified  by  faith  without  deeds 
of  laiv."  Baptism  is  a  deed  of  the  ceremonial  law  of  the 
New  Testament  dispensation.     Paul  is  the  author  of  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  127 

most  of  the  New  Testament,  and  fights  legalism,  i.  e., 
salvation  by  works,  with  all  his  might  from  beginning  to 
end. 

How  strange  to  see  hundreds  and  thousands  of  people 
deluded  with  the  dogma  of  baptismal  regeneration,  when 
there  is  not  a  syllable  in  the  Bible  which  can  be  con- 
strued for  its  support  without  a  wonderful  perversion 
and  making  the  Bible  flatly  contradict  itself. 

During  the  war  period  of  the  Campbellites,  they 
selected  their  ablest  champions  to  defend  their  doctrines. 
I  realized  during  these  debates  a  grand  open  door  to 
preach  the  precious  spiritual  truths  of  God  to  multitudes 
of  people,  who  had  been  led  away  by  these  erronists  till 
they  never  heard  a  Gospel  sermon.  You  may  rest  as- 
sured that  the  legalisms  which  these  people  preach 
are  not  the  Gospel.  Romans  1 :  16:  "The  Gospel  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believcth." 

There  are  two  Greek  words  translated  "power."  The 
one  is  exousia,  which  means  power  in  the  sense  of  author- 
ity; but  this  word  which  defines  Gospel  is  dunaiuis,  which 
has  been  adopted  into  the  English  language  as  "dyna- 
mite," the  greatest  mechanical  power  in  the  world.  When 
the  scientists  discovered  it,  they  ransacked  the  vocabu- 
lary of  the  English  language  with  its  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  words  in  vain  to  find  a  term  strong  enough 
to  reveal  their  wonderful  discovery  to  the  world,  but  sig- 
nally failed.  Then  they  went  to  God's  Book  to  find  a  word, 
and  though  it  is  hardly  probable  that  they  knew  the  Lord 
experimentally,  yet  I  doubt  not  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
guided  them  to  this  very  word,  which  is  God's  definition 
of  Gospel.  Dynamite  is  peculiar  for  its  paradoxical  ex- 
plosive power.  N.  B.  It  does  not  say  that  the  Gospel  is 
the  written  Word.     This   is  indispensable;  yet  it  only 


128  Autobiography   otf 

serves   as   the   vehicle   through   which   the   Holy   Ghost 
sends  the  Gospel  to  the  heart. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  find  four  distinct  phases  of 
the  Gospel.  That  on  Sinai,  thundering  forth  the  terrors 
of  violated  law  till  transgressors  see  Hell  opened  and  de- 
moniacal platoons  all  around  them,  is  the  Gospel  of  con- 
viction, and  when  faithfully  and  persistently  preached  will 
always  produce  a  conviction  which  sinners  cannot  shake 
off.  When  you  preach  to  convicted  people  the  Gospel  of 
Calvary,  which  is  the  dying  love  of  Jesus,  till  the  Holy 
Ghost,  through  the  Word,  reveals  the  Savior  pouring  out 
His  blood  to  redeem  from  sin,  death  and  Hell ;  when  you 
hear  Him  say  with  His  expiring  breath :  "It  is  finished," 
and  you,  by  faith,  realize  that  He  has  wrought  and  fin- 
ished your  salvation  on  the  cross;  then  your  burden 
rolls  away  and  you  receive  a  new  heart.  After  this 
comes  the  Pentecostal  Gospel  of  the  glorious  baptism 
which  our  Savior  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire, 
crucifying  and  burning  old  Adam  and  superseding  him 
by  the  glorified  Savior  crowned  and  sceptred  within. 
Then  under  the  illuminations  of  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit 
you  are  enabled  to  make  an  entire  consecration  and,  by 
simple  faith,  receive  Jesus  as  your  sanctifier.  Then 
another  tremendous  explosion  takes  place,  blowing  the 
deep,  ponderous  strata  of  inbred  sin  from  the  profound 
interior  of  your  spiritual  organism,  giving  you  a  clean 
heart  and  sanctifying  you  wholly. 

The  Lord  has  a  Gospel  for  the  sanctified,  to  keep  them 
on  the  constant  outlook  for  the  return  of  Jesus  with 
His  glorified  angels,  to  take  away  His  Bride.  This 
Gospel  keeps  your  eyes  closed  to  vain  and  transitory 
things,  calculated  to  derail  and  sidetrack  you.  When 
you,  thus  robed  and  ready,  stand  watching  and  waiting 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  129 

the  appearing  of  our  glorious  Lord,  coming  in  the  clouds 
to  consummate  the  long  anticipated  rapture  of  His  ex- 
pectant spouse,  then,  responsive  to  the  archangel's  trump, 
through  the  faith  by  which  Enoch  was  translated  that  he 
should  not  taste  death,  even  so  the  saints  of  the  latter 
days  will  be  caught  up  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  and 
to  thus  be  forever  with  Him.  This  is  the  glorious  trans- 
figuration Gospel,  when  the  same  heavenly  dynamite 
that  gave  us  the  Sinai  conviction  when  a  sinner,  a  sky 
blue  regeneration  when  a  broken-hearted  penitent,  a  tri- 
umphant sanctification  when  we  sought  the  second  great 
work  of  grace,  will  also  transfigure  these  mortal  bodies 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  eliminating  all  ponderous 
matter,  till  they  will  not  weigh  anything,  and  conse- 
quently, spontaneously  responsive  to  the  interior  im- 
pulses of  the  soul,  will  rise  with  shouts  of  victory  to 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air. 

N.  B.  This  dynamite  (Rom.  1  :  16)  is  the  Gospel. 
It  is  God's  own  definition.  Without  it  you  may  hear  the 
Word  like  sounding  brass  and  a  tinkling  cymbal,  but, 
utterly  destitute  of  the  Gospel,  you  will  never  be  saved. 
You  will  see  from  this  Scripture  that  you  receive  this 
Gospel  not  by  works,  but  by  faith  alone,  as  it  is  the 
dynamite  of  God  only  to  those  who  believe.  If  you  have 
not  received  it,  mark  it  down  that  there  is  a  deficiency 
in  your  faith.  In  all  probability  the  deficiency  is  in  the 
department  of  repentance,  which  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  put  you  on  believing  ground,  in  order  that  you  may 
be  justified,  sanctified,  and  glorified  by  faith.  Thus 
alone  will  you  receive  these  three  great  and  indispensable 
works  of  grace. 

Oh,  what  a  grand  open  door  did  the  blessed  Lord  give 
me  in  those  debates.     Both  contestants  had  equal  time, 


130  Autobiography   o* 

which  the  umpire  diligently  kept,  securing  to  each  one 
every  minute  due  him.  He  had  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleased 
with  his  time.  I  had  no  trouble  to  answer  all  of  their 
water  doctrines  in  one-half  of  my  allotted  time.  Then 
I  had  the  other  half  to  preach  Holy  Ghost  religion  like 
lightning  to  the  multitude,  when  God  wonderfully  used 
this  truth.  During  a  debate  of  eight  days  of  four  hours 
each,  we  could  pour  out  on  them  floods  of  the  precious 
truth  which  alone  can  save  a  lost  world.  As  the  days 
passed  by,  conviction  descended  from  God  and  settled 
down  on  unsaved  people  like  a  nightmare.  There  we  had 
multitudes  of  Campbellites  as  well  as  sinners  of  other 
churches  who  so  much  needed  the  Gospel,  but  who, 
through  the  manipulations  of  their  preachers,  had  been 
kept  away  from  Holy  Ghost  meetings,  which  their  preach- 
ers had  denounced  and  ridiculed,  arousing  their  preju- 
dices against  them  in  order  to  make  sure  of  holding  them. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  I  had  two  debates  of  eight 
days  each  with  Elder  J.  B.  Briney,  a  classical  scholar 
and  a  great  orator. 

As  uniformly  I  only  needed  half  of  my  time  to  answer 
their  water  arguments,  I  had  the  other  half  to  preach 
the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth.  We  get  this  wonderful  salvation  only  through 
faith.  When  you  resort  to  other  devices,  you  are  side- 
tracked by  Satan  every  time,  and  trying  to  get  it  by 
works,  which  the  Scriptures  condemn  from  beginning  to 
end.  Rest  assured,  legalism  is  Satan's  greased  plank 
over  which  he  slides  multiplied  millions  into  Hell.  When- 
ever any  person  is  shoving  any  kind  of  work  as  a  con- 
dition of  justification,  regeneration,  or  sanctification  on 
you,  you  may  know  he  is  sidetracking  you  into  legalism, 
which  is  the  sleekest  plank  to  Hell.     You  say,  "I  have 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  131 

the  faith,  but  not  the  experience."  I  know  you  are  mis- 
taken. If  you  had  the  faith,  you  would  have  the  ex- 
perience, because  Jesus  says :  "As  your  faith  is,  so  be  it 
unto  you."  Matt.  9 :  29.  He  makes  faith  the  necessary 
line  of  the  grace  He  gives  you,  and  you  so  find  it  through- 
out the  Bible,  without  a  solitary  exception. 

In  debating  with  Elder  Briney,  I  used  my  extra  time 
to  show  up  the  grand  spiritual  truths  of  the  Bible  along 
the  line  of  experimental  salvation,  assuring  the  people 
that  they  might  take  all  of  those  water  doctrines  and  do 
their  best  on  the  line  of  legal  obedience  and  they  would 
certainly  be  lost  forever.  We  obey  the  law  because  we 
are  saved.  If  we  do  it  in  order  to  get  saved  we  will  be 
forever  lost,  because,  in  so  doing,  we  ignore  the  perfect 
work  of  Christ,  which  we  can  only  receive  by  faith.  If 
we  resort  to  our  own  works,  in  that  way  we  vitiate  the 
faith  which  alone  can  receive  and  appropriate  the  salva- 
tion of  Christ. 

While  I  was  exposing  that  awful  Campbellite  legalism, 
he  called  me  to  order.  The  law  of  forensic  discussion, 
laid  down  in  Hedge's  Logic,  which  we  had  adopted,  per- 
mits an  opponent  to  call  down  a  speaker  if  he  gets  out 
of  order.  Then  the  umpire  had  me  to  sit  down  and  called 
up  Elder  Briney  to  state  his  point  of  order.  This  point 
was  that  I  was  sending  his  people  to  Hell  and  I  had  no 
right  to  do  it.  Then  the  umpire  called  me  up  to  defend 
myself  against  the  accusation.  I  simply  denied  the 
charge,  certifying  that  I  was  on  the  opposite  side  and 
doing  my  utmost  to  keep  them  out  of  Hell,  by  telling 
them  God's  plain  way  of  salvation;  while,  to  my  deep 
sorrow,  I  knew  they  were  going  to  Hell  if  they  did  not 
get  experimental  Holy  Ghost  regeneration  and  sanctifi- 
cation,  which  their  false  doctrines,  which  I  was  doing 


132  Autobiography   op 

my  best  to  refute  and  take  out  of  their  way,  never  could 
do.  Then  the  umpire  and  the  moderators  told  me  to  go 
on  with  my  speech. 

The  result  was  that  I  used  my  time  perfectly  freely, 
preaching  experimental  religion  to  the  spellbound  audi- 
ence with  all  my  might  till  the  close  of  the  eight  days' 
debate.  The  Lord  gave  me  a  glorious  open  door  to 
preach  His  blessed  saving  truth  to  vast  multitudes  who 
had  never  heard  it,  as  the  Campbellites  had  been  giving 
them  nothing  but  a  water  Gospel  for  fifty  years,  which 
we  know,  to  our  sorrow,  is  "weak  as  water."  All  they 
could  ask  of  me  as  an  honorable  contestant  in  the  debate 
was  to  answer  all  their  arguments.  This  I  had  no 
trouble  to  do  in  half  of  my  allotted  time,  fully  elucidating 
and  expounding  to  them  the  precious  Word  of  God,  and 
showing  clearly  their  utter  perversion  and  misapplica- 
tion by  those  dear  people  with  whom  I  was  reared,  and 
whom  I  loved  enough  to  die  for  them. 

The  Jews  drifted  away  from  the  glorious  experimental 
truth  which  saved  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  and  en- 
abled their  fathers  and  mothers  to  die  shouting  and  wing- 
ing their  flight  to  glory.  They  became  worldly,  lost  their 
hold  on  God,  idolized  the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  and 
drifted  into  dead  legalism,  depending  on  their  good  works 
to  save  them,  precisely  like  the  Campbellites,  as  well  as 
millions  in  other  churches,  are  doing  to-day. 

After  Paul,  having  long  preached  this  dead  legalism, 
thinking  it  would  save  people,  and  having  even  defended 
it  by  persecuting  the  spiritual  Nazarenes  unto  blood,  got 
so  awfully  convicted  when  Jesus  met  him  on  the  road 
near  Damascus,  and  after  three  days  and  nights  agoniz- 
ing as  a  mourner  before  God,  without  eating  or  sleeping, 
got  so  wonderfully  converted    under    the    ministry    of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  133 

Ananias ;  and  three  years  afterward  was  so  powerfully 
sanctified  in  Arabia  (Gal.  1st  chap.;  Rom.  7th  chap.), 
and  subsequently  to  the  end  of  his  life  was  flooded  with 
the  clear  light  of  full  salvation ;  we  do  not  wonder  that 
he  was  willing  to  become  crucified,  as  Christ  had  been 
to  save  the  people  of  his  consanguinity.  (Rom.  9:  1-3.) 
So  during  all  my  debates  with  the  Campbellites  I  had 
the  perfect  love  for  them  which  prepared  me  for  mar- 
tyrdom.    If  it  had  been  God's  will,  1  would  gladly  have 

down  my  life  to  save  them. 
Their  ancestors  had  been  members  of  the  orthodox 
churches,  brought  up  in  the  light  of  the  true  spiritual 
Gospel,  that  saves  people  instead  of  deceiving,  coaxing 
and  cheating  them  out  of  their  souls,  which  is  the  normal 
effect  of  this  awful  Campbellite  heresy  of  baptismal  re- 
generation, which  they  and  the  Mormons  boldly  and 
unequivocally  preach  and  defend  with  a  heroism  that 
certainly  deserves  a  better  cause.  I  give  them  credit 
for  their  honesty,  but  know  they  are  deceived  and  de- 
ceiving others.  I  was  bound  to  preach  the  true  Gospel 
with  all  the  power-  of  the  body,  soul  and  spirit  which 
God  gave  me.  In  so  doing  from  the  time  He  sanctified 
me  in  1S68,  the  Spirit  always  fell  on  the  people  in  mighty 
conviction,  moving  them  to  crowd  the  altar  and  seek 
the  Lord  till  they  found  Him.  Many  members  of  the 
Campbellite  Church,  along  with  unsaved  Methodists, 
Baptists,  and  outside  sinners,  crowded  the  altar,  prayed 
through  to  God,  and  got  gloriously  saved,  which  forever 

lalifi  '  them  to  stay  in  the  Church  where  they  not 
only  could  get  no  soul  pabulum,  but  heard  their  religion 
discounted,  ridiculed,  and  abused;  consequently  when 
they  got  gloriously  converted,  they  invariably  joined  the 
Baptists  or  Methodists. 


134  Autobiography   of 

This  so  stirred  up  the  Campbellite  preachers  that  they 
hounded  me  night  and  day  with  challenges  written  to 
me  in  letters  and  publicly  proclaimed  from  their  pulpits. 
As  I  wanted  to  devote  all  of  my  time  to  preaching  and 
not  stop  to  debate,  I  retreated  from  them  as  long  as  I 
could.  They  hemmed  me  up  and  forced  me  to  fight  or 
take  down  my  colors.  The  latter  I  could  not  do,  as  I 
had  no  colors  but  the  blood-stained  banner  and  was 
preaching  nothing  but  Jesus,  omnipotent  to  save  every 
one  that  will  give  Him  a  chance,  and  that  without  a 
Campbellite  preacher  or  a  Mormon  prophet  to  help  Him 
by  immersing  .them  in  water.  I  was  truly  like  Nehemiah 
building  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  when  he  had  to  carry 
the  trowel  in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other  and 
have  all  of  his  people  to  do  likewise,  as  Sanballat  had 
stirred  up  the  surrounding  nations  to  fight  them  and 
keep  them  from  fortifying  Jerusalem  by  impregnable 
walls. 

The  Methodist  preachers  had  yielded  to  intimidation 
and  given  up  the  altar,  contenting  themselves  to  take  in 
members  as  seekers  and  risk  getting  them  converted 
afterwards.  This  state  of  things  was  fast  secularizing 
the  Church,  as  the  old  ones  who  had  been  saved  were 
going  to  Heaven  and  leaving  the  Church  in  the  hands 
of  their  successors  who  knew  not  the  Lord  experimen- 
tally. I  could  not  preach  Bible  Holy  Ghost  religion 
clearly,  forcefully,  efficiently  and  successfully,  without 
constantly  exposing  the  silly,  superficial  sophistries  of 
Campbellism,  which  the  people  had  heard  so  long  that 
many  of  them  believed,  and  really  the  popular  mind  had 
suffered  an  awful  deterioration  appertaining  to  the  or- 
thodox truth  of  the  Bible,  which  is  the  actual  new  crea- 
tion wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  through 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  135 

faith  subsequently  to  a  radical  and  genuine  repentance. 

Campbell's  translation  of  the  New  Testament  was  cir- 
culated and  read,  which  gives  "reformation"  for  "re- 
pentance," and  "immersion"  for  "baptism,"  thus  really 
eliminating  spirituality  out  of  the  Bible.  The  Greek 
word  for  repentance  is  mctamoria,  which  literally  means 
a  change  of  mind.  The  Campbellite  interpretation  is 
simply  metaphysical,  construing  it  into  a  mere  change 
of  purpose  and  consequent  reformation.  The  error  lurks 
deep  down  on  the  bottom  of  Bible  theology.  The  Bible 
is  not  a  book  on  mental  philosophy,  but  salvation,  and 
serves  as  its  own  expositor.  The  precious  book  plainly 
reveals  what  the  change  of  mind  is ;  not  simply  a  change 
of  thought  and  purpose,  but  the  actual  removal  of  the 
carnal  mind,  which  is  hereditary  from  fallen  Adam,  and 
its  substitution  by  the  mind  of  Christ,  which  is  created 
in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  regeneration.  In  the 
first  great  work  of  grace  wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
justification  and  regeneration,  which  constitutes  conver- 
sion, the  old  man  of  sin,  i.  e.,  the  carnal  mind,  is  con- 
quered and  grace  given  to  hold  him  in  subordination  so 
that  he  does  not  break  out  and  commit  actual  transgres- 
sions ;  yet  we  still  have  him  on  hand  in  the  deep  interior 
of  the  heart  and  ready  to  rise  in  the  form  of  pride, 
vanity,  ambition,  lust,  passion,  temper,  envy,  jealousy, 
revenge,  ritualism,  prejudice,  bigotry,  egotism,  sectar- 
ianism, self-will  and  a  diversity  of  insidious  metamor- 
phisms.  Consequently  every  true  Christian  has  the  in- 
ward conflict  till  these  indwelling  enemies,  which  are  the 
elements  of  the  carnal  mind,  are  all  washed  away  by  the 
cleansing  blood  in  entire  sanctification,  which  is  the  com- 
pletion of  repentance. 

The  vast  multitudes  who  came  from  all  the  surround- 


136  Autobiography  op 

ing   country   to   attend   those    debates   had   never   \ 
much  true,  straight,  orthodox  preaching,  as  four-fifth 
the  crowd  were  either  members  of  the  Campbellit 
under  their  influence.     My  opportunities  t  1  preach  the 
Gospel  to  the  people  who  had  really  never  heard  it  were 
almost  as  if  one  were  in  India.     Some  places  where  I 
preached,  the  people  said  that  they  had  never  heard  the 
Gospel  before.     Let  the  Campbellites  get  the  complete 
monopoly  of  a  country  and  give  the  people  nothing  but 
their  water  doctrines,  and  at  the  same  time  abuse  and 
ridicule  Holy  Ghost  religion  and  tell  the  people  that  there 
is  no  such  thing,  and  that  the  people  who  profess  it  are 
fanatics,  deceived  and  deceiving  others;  in  a  genera 
or  two  the  Gospel  will  go  out  of  that  country,  an 
people    become    practically    heathenized.      The    doctrine 
constantly  preached  by  these  people,  which   I  heard  in- 
cessantly  during   the   first    twenty  years   of   my   life,    is 
literal  idolatry.     In  the  house  of  Noah,  whence  all  the 
people  in  the  world  emanated,  they  all  had  a  knowledge 
of  the  true  God;  but  how  quickly  they  trended   away 
into    idolatry.      Baal,   the    sun-god,    and    Ashteroth,   the 
moon-goddess,  led  the  way  in  the  monopoly  of  the  human 
heart,  as  they  are  the  most  conspicuous  to  the  eye. 

Well  has  man  been  denominated  by  philosophers  the 
"religious  animal."  Therefore  a  nati  n  without  a  re- 
ligion has  never  been  found.  The  most  simple  form  of 
religion  which  has  been  found  among  all  nations  is 
spiritism,  i.  e.,  the  recognition  of  a  spirit  at  every  place, 
at  a  fountain,  at  a  river,  or  a  mountain,  or  a  plain.  They 
think  that  there  is  a  spirit  there  somewhere  having 
charge  of  it,  and  if  they  do  not  respect  its  fights  and 
show  it  reverence  by  offering  it  sacrifice,  it  will  punish 
them   in   some   way.     From   this   comes    fetichism,   the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  137 

religion  of  charms,  i.  e.,  the  wearing  of  something  on 
one's  person,  like  a  ring  on  the  finger,  to  keep  away  dis- 
eases, and  fortify  you  against  evils. 

You  see  how  exceedingly  difficult  it  was  to  keep  Israel 
out  of  idolatry.  They  would  engage  in  the  worship  of 
Jehovah,  whom  they  could  not  see,  but  they  wanted  to 
see  the  object  of  their  worship.  Baal,  the  sun-god,  was 
so  conspicuous  as  he  rolled  his  fiery  chariot  over  the 
•skies,  flooding  the  world  with  his  light,  that  they  felt 
awed  into  reverence  before  him  and  constrained  to  recog- 
nize his  majesty  by  offering  him  a  sacrifice.  They  be- 
lieved that  he  was  the  god  that  made  them.  The  Amer- 
ican Indians  have  always  worshipped  the  sun,  and  do  to 
this  clay.  When  they  offered  Tecumseh,  their  great 
chief,  a  chair,  he  refused  it  and  sat  down  on  the  ground, 
saying:  "The  sun  is  my  father,  and  the  earth  is  my 
mother  and  on  her  bosom  will  I  rest" 

The  most  difficult  thing  in  the  world  is  to  get  people 
to  be  content  to  walk  with  an  unseen  God.  In  the  old 
dispensation,  all  the  nations  on  the  earth  were  very  re- 
ligious, but  they  had  their  visible  and  tangible  divinities ; 
whereas  the  Jehovah  of  Israel  no  one  could  see.  When 
He  had  come  among  them  and  wrought  great  miracles, 
which  they  could  see  and  hear,  they  would  be  satisfied  as 
long  as  they  lived ;  but  when  the  generation  who  had 
witnessed  those  miracles  was  all  dead,  their  successors, 
who  had  never  seen  those  mighty  works,  went  into  idol- 
atry. The  idiosincrasy  of  the  human  mind  is  so  consti- 
tuted that  we  cannoN  withhold  veneration  from  every- 
thing which  is  essential  to  the  salvation  of  our  souls; 
therefore  legalism  always  drifts  into  idolatry.  While  the 
Babylonian  captivity  forever  curel  the  Jews  of  pagan- 
istic  idolatry,  so  they  never  afterward  went  into  it,  vet 


138  Autobiography   op 

they  idolized  the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  of  which 
Moses  had  given  them  many,  and  really  drifted  into 
idolatry  that  way. 

Hydrolatry  is  from  hardor,  water,  and  latria,  worship. 
Therefore  it  means  water  worship.  Rest  assured  that 
the  view  of  baptism  as  a  condition  of  pardon  for  sins, 
and  essential  to  it,  which  is  constantly  preached  by 
Campbellites  and  Mormons,  is  as  positive  idolatry  as  any 
you  can  find  among  the  heathen  nations.  I  spent  three 
months  as  busy  as  I  could  be  nig-ht  and  day  dashing  over 
the  railroads  through  India,  travelling  six  thousand 
miles  and  preaching  constantly  through  interpreters,  and 
everywhere  seeing  their  idols  and  witnessing  their  wor- 
ship. The  worship  of  water,  i.  e.,  this  very  hydrolatry 
which  is  fearfully  encroaching  on  Christianity  in  Amer- 
ica, was  the  most  conspicuous  form  of  their  idol  worship. 
They  go  on  long  pilgrimages  to  the  holy  Ganges  and 
Jumna,  for  the  privilege  of  plunging  in  and,  as  they 
believe,  of  washing  their  sins  away.  As  the  poor  people 
in  that  great  country,  thirty-three  hundred  miles  long 
and  three  thousand  miles  wide,  are  many  of  them  too  far 
from  these  holy  rivers  to  enjoy  their  benefit,  therefore 
the  priests  have  to  meet  the  emergency  by  the  construc- 
tion of  holy  tanks.  In  the  city  of  Madras,  the  metropolis 
of  Southern  India,  the  holy  tank  occupies  a  whole  square. 
It  is  conveniently  entered  by  great  flights  of  nicely  hewn 
stone  steps,  extending  all  around  it,  as  it  fronts  the 
street  on  three  sides.  The  Pantheon,  where  all  the  gods 
are  worshipped,  fronts  the  other  s/de.  Thus  the  crowds 
can  walk  down  from  all  sides  into  those  holy  waters  and 
wash  their  sins  away.  Oh,  but  you  say,  "We  do  not 
believe  the  water  has  power  to  wash  away  sins ;  that  is 
the  prerogative  of  the  precious  blood  alone."    But  Camp- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  139 

bell  in  his  "Christian  System"  says :  "We  only  preach 
the  blood  in  the  water."  But  you  say:  "We  do  not  be- 
lieve that  water  can  wash  away  our  sins ;  but  we  simply 
depend  on  obedience  to  the  commandment."  Do  you  not 
know  that  salvation  by  works  is  downright  legalism, 
which  is  but  another  form  of  idolatry?  "For  by  grace 
ye  are  saved  through  faith,  and  that  not  of  yourselves ; 
it  is  the  gift  of  God,  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should 
boast."  (Eph.  2:8.)  This  plain  and  unmistakable  state- 
ment of  God's  infallible  Word  voices  the  uniform  teach- 
ing of  the  Scriptures.  This  clear  and  positive  state- 
ment, revelatory  of  salvation  by  faith  alone  as  the  hu- 
man condition,  I  can  actually  centuplicate,  i.  e.,  give  you 
a  round  hundred  parallel  passages.  God  has  made  the 
way  of  salvation  revealed  in  the  Bible  so  plain  that 
"wayfaring  men,  though  fools,  cannot  err  therein." 

But  the  Campbellites  and  Mormons  give  us  James 
2:  24,  "You  see  that  a  man  is  justified  by  works  and  not 
by  faith  alone."  They  are  always  using  this  quotation, 
thereby  showing  their  ignorance  of  God's  Word.  God 
commands  us,  2  Timothy  2:  15,  "Study  to  shozv  thyself 
approved  of  God,  a  ivorkman  that  needeth  not  to  be 
ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  Word  of  Truth."  The 
Campbellite  construction  simply  makes  James  flatly  con- 
tradict Paul  in  dozens  and  scores,  and  I  believe  hun- 
dreds, of  passages.  If  you  rightly  divide  the  Word  of 
Truth,  you  will  find  no  contradiction  in  the  Bible.  Paul 
is  speaking  of  the  justification  of  a  sinner  in  the  sense 
of  pardon  and  salvation,  while  James  is  setting  the  jus- 
tification of  a  Christian  in  the  sense  of  approval,  and 
gives  the  examples  of  Abraham  and  Rahab. 

When  Abraham  offered  up  Isaac,  it  was  forty-oik- 
years  after  he  was  justified  by  faith  in  the  sense  of  par- 


140  Autobiography    of 

don.  Perhaps  you  fail  to  recognize  Rahab  as  a  godly 
woman,  and  the  English  version  calls  her  a  harlot.  The 
Hebrew  word  couth  primarily  means  a  woman  keeping 
a  public  house,  with  no  reference  to  her  moral  character. 
Rahab  in  this  case  was  keeping  a  tavern  in  Jericho  which 
was  respectable  enough  for  Joshua's  spies  to  select  it 
for  a  lodging  place.  Besides  you  find  her  on  the  faith 
roll  (Hebrews  nth  chapter),  showing  plainly  that  she 
was  a  godly  woman.  She  became  the  wife  of  Salmon, 
the  Hebrew,  and  the  mother  of  Boaz,  the  godly  husband 
of  Ruth  and  father  of  Obed,  the  father  of  Jesse,  the 
father  of  David;  so  you  see  she  was  one  of  the  honored 
mothers  of  our  Lord. 

There  are  four  justifications  in  human  life.  First, 
in  infancy  we  are  all  justified  without  faith  or  works, 
but  purely  by  the  work  of  Christ. 

Second,  the  sinner  is  justified  by  faith  alone,  as  he  is  in 
the  devil's  kingdom  and  if  he  did  any  good  work  the  devil 
would  get  it.  Therefore  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  do  any- 
thing but  cast  himself  on  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ  and 
trust  Jesus  for  pardon  and  salvation.  The  Campbellite 
policy  of  having  him  depend  on  works  is  most  nonsensi- 
cal, as  he  cannot  possibly  do  anything  that  would  not 
belong  to  the  devil  until  he  gets  out  of  his  kingdom, 
which  he  can  never  do  till  he  is  freely  justified  by  the 
work  of  Christ,  which  he  can  only  receive  and  appro- 
priate by  faith.  Then  God  freely  forgives  him  all  his 
sins  for  Christ's  sake  and  the  Holy  Spirit  regenerates 
him,  therefore  this  awful  diabolical  priestcraft  that  sends 
the  weeping  penitent  to  the  water  instead  of  Jesus  is  the 
cunning  device  of  Satan  for  his  certain  damnation. 
Better  that  preacher  never  had  been  born  than  to  as- 
sume  this   awful    responsibility   of   coming   between   the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  141 

lost  soul  and  the  Savior,  and  offering  him  the  vain  sub- 
stitute of  church  rites  instead  of  the  precious  blood  of 
Jesus.  If  this  doctrine  had  been  true,  the  Son  of  God 
might  have  saved  His  life  and  stayed  in  Heaven,  for 
we  had  the  law  from  the  beginning  with  nothing  to  do 
but  to  obey;  we  always  had  plenty  of  water  to  immerse 
people.  This  horrific,  Satanic  legalism  of  salvation  by 
obedience,  which  those  people  preached  boldly  with  all 
their  might,  (and  I  doubt  not  their  sincerity,  because 
blind  people  do  not  see  anything),  is  shocking  and  ap- 
palling beyond  all  conception,  as  it  actually  treats  with 
contempt  the  dying  love  of  Jesus,  which  brought  Him 
from  Heaven  to  redeem  us  by  His  blood. 

If  this  doctrine  were  true,  you  plainly  see  the  work  of 
Christ  was  not  necessary.  Truly,  this  terrific  falsehood 
hatched  in  the  bottomless  pit  shoves  away  Jesus  in  a 
corner  and  gives  the  Campbellites,  the  Mormon  prophet, 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  priests  the  field,  honored  with 
the  investiture  of  life  and  salvation.  You  may  take  a 
whole  community  under  this  influence  and  this  state  of 
things  will  normally  obtain ;  the  preachers  coming  to  the 
front  and  Jesus  relegated  to  the  rear.  It  really  becomes 
a  puzzle  to  know  what  use  they  have  for  Him,  as  they 
are  just  ready  to  take  the  candidate's  confession,  im- 
merse him  for  the  remission  of  his  sins,  and  thus  make 
him  a  Christian,  after  their  bogus  nomenclature,  inde- 
pendent of  Christ.  Shocking  to  think !  After  the  poor 
sinner  has  been  freely  justified  by  the  vicarious  substi- 
tutionary atonement  of  Christ,  received  and  appropriated 
by  faith,  he  is  then  gloriously  regenerated  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Third,  as  bona  fide  citizens  of  the  kingdom,  we  must 
always  obey  God,  proving  our  faith  by  our  works,  as 


142  Autobiography   op 

James  beautifully  teaches  us,  in  perfect  harmony  with 
Paul's  powerful  and  unmistakable  deliverances  on  the 
justification  of  all  sinners  by  faith,  "without  deeds  of 
law."  Baptism  is  a  deed  of  the  ritual  law,  and  therefore, 
with  all  other  deeds  of  law,  eternally  and  unequivocally 
excluded  from  the  realm  of  justification.  It  comes  in 
with  all  other  good  works,  after  we  are  freely  justified 
by  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ,  and  joyfully  regenerated 
by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Fourth,  there  is  also  a  fourth  justification  which  takes 
place  when  we  stand  before  the  judgment  scat  of  Christ. 
This  justification  is  by  works  alone.  Revelation  22:  12: 
"Behold,  I  come  quickly,  and  My  reward  is  with  me,  to 
give  unto  each  one  as  his  zvork  is."  You  see  that  while 
the  doctrine  of  good  works  has  not  anything  to  do 
with  saving  us  from  our  sins,  which  is  the  work  of 
Christ  alone,  yet  they  are  the  measure  of  our  reward  in 
Heaven.  Therefore  we  should  work  for  the  Lord  night 
and  day  after  we  get  into  His  kingdom ;  but  beware  of 
Satan's  awful  lies,  telling  you  that  you  can  get  saved 
by  good  works.  Until  you  are  saved,  you  are  still  in  the 
devil's  kingdom,  therefore,  as  you  are  under  his  influ- 
ence, he  will  hallucinate  you  by  the  idea  that  you  can  be 
saved  by  your  good  works;  because  in  this  way  he  will 
drive  off  your  convictions,  thus  making  you  believe  you 
are  a  Christian,  when  he  knows  you  are  a  sinner.  If  he 
can  keep  you  under  that  delusion,  he  will  soon  have  you 
in  Hell. 


Chapter  VI. 
VARIOUS  FORMS  OF  IDOLATRY. 

Churches  which  do  not  send  people  directly  to  the 
feet  of  Jesus  to  implore  the  pardoning  mercy  of  God 
which  He  purchased  on  Calvary,  are  all  Hell  traps, 
hallucinating  the  people  with  the  vain  delusion  that  they 
are  Christians,  when  they  are  sinners  on  the  broad  road 
to  Hell. 

The  Campbellite  dogma  of  confession  and  baptism 
actually  takes  away  the  convictions  by  rendering  the 
sinner  independent  of  Christ.  No  one  ever  does  get  par- 
doned till  he  has  given  up  everything  else,  finding  his 
own  good  works  all  "filthy  rags  in  the  sight  of  God." 
With  this  universal  surrender  he  must  also  give  up  that 
dogma  of  remission  by  immersion,  otherwise  he  will 
never  be  able  to  reach  that  utter  desperation  of  all  earthly 
resources  which  must  inevitably  antedate  his  total,  un- 
reserved and  eternal  abandonment  at  the  feet  of  Jesus, 
and  the  final  ejectment  of  his  hopeless  soul  on  the  mercy 
of  God  in  Christ;  which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  bring 
him  into  a  position  to  receive  the  free  pardon  of  all  his 
sins.  Therefore  these  false  prophets  with  their  legal- 
ism actually  head  off  the  sinner  from  Christ  and  put 
him  on  this  greased  plank  of  legalism,  on  which  he  slides 
down  to  Hell. 

In  my  world-wide  travels,  when  seeing  the  millions  of 

143 


144  Autobiography   o? 

idolaters,  and  preaching  in  the  midst  of  their  temples  and 
shrines  and  amid  millions  thronging  the  holy  rivers  to 
wash  away  their  sins  in  those  sacred  waters,  or,  a  matter 
of  convenience  to  the  people  living  far  away  from  those 
holy  rivers,  washing  in  the  holy  tanks,  that  they  might 
be  saved,  thus  actually  worshipping  those  holy  waters ; 
I  often  thought  about  the  myriads  in  Christian  lands 
who  are  wedded  to  idolatry  in  different  forms  and 
phases.  Hydrolatry,  i.  e.,  water  worship,  is  very  preva- 
lent. Rest  assured  that  every  person  who  believes  in 
baptism  in  order  to  the  remission  of  sins,  or  in  any  way 
regards  it  as  a  saving  ordinance,  is  a  hydrolater,  i.  e., 
a  water  worshipper,  which  is  a  form  of  idolatry  exceed- 
ingly prominent  in  heathen  lands,  and  has  been  devel- 
oped more  or  less  in  the  Church  in  every  age. 

With  the  Roman  and  Greek  Catholics,  Maryolatry, 
i.  e.,  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  which  is  none 
other  than  a  species  of  idolatry,  has  actually  captured 
three  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people  who  wear  the 
Christian  name. 

Eucharolatry,  i.  e.,  the  worship  of  the  sacramental  ele- 
ments, has  not  only  swept  Catholicism  in  all  lands,  but 
the  thirty  millions  of  Lutherans  throughout  the  world, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  are  by  no  means  free  from  it.  Luther 
found  the  Church,  just  having  passed  through  the  Dark 
Ages  (a  thousand  years,  during  which  not  one  man  in  a 
thousand  could  read  or  write),  full  of  idolatry.  The 
Chv.rch  remained  pure  till  the  conversion  of  the  Em- 
peror Constantine,  A.  D.  321.  He  did  his  best  to  stop 
pagan  worship  throughout  his  world-wide  empire,  but 
he  could  not  do  it.  Under  his  potent  influence  millions 
of  heathen  were  brought  into  the  Church  without  a 
knowledge  of  God  in  personal  experience.     Therefore, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  145 

while  they  gave  up  their  pagan  worship,  they  soon  idol- 
ized the  sacraments,  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 
They  magnified  them,  as  they  imputed  salvation  to  them. 
Soon  the  triune  immersion,  in  a  state  of  entire  nudity 
and  with  a  lot  of  ceremonies  invented  by  the  priests, 
universally  prevailed.  Luther  found  the  Church  wrapped 
in  the  dismal  night  of  the  Dark  Ages  and  had  so  much  to 
do  that  he  did  not  get  rid  of  all  of  the  dogmata  of  priest- 
craft, which  had  found  their  way  into  the  Church. 
•  The  Roman  Catholics  hold  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation,  pursuant  to  which  they  claim  that  when  the 
priest  consecrates  the  bread,  it  is  actually  turned  into 
the  literal  body  of  Christ,  which  the  people  eat,  and  the 
wine  into  the  literal  body  of  Christ,  which  they  drink. 
While  Luther  tried  to  get  rid  of  that  heresy,  he  hung 
on  a  modification  of  it,  which  he  called  consubstantiation. 
In  this  he  discards  the  popish  dogma  that  the  elements 
are  turned  into  our  Lord's  literal  body  and  blood ;  mean- 
while he  maintains  the  real  presence  of  the  body  and 
blood.  Therefore  the  people  under  his  reformation  still 
held  on  to  the  papistical  dogma  of  sins  forgiven  in  the 
sacrament. 

I  remember  an  illustrative  case.  A  profane,  drunken 
German  had  married  a  very  bright  and  spiritual  Meth- 
odist woman.  He  was  learned  and  intellectual,  but 
really  a  wicked  man.  Though  born  a  Lutheran,  when 
I  invited  the  Christians  to  the  sacraments  on  the  Sunday 
morning  of  the  quarterly  meeting,  he  came  from  the 
rear  of  the  congregation  and  took  his  place  among  the 
communicants.  Afterward  some  of  them  asked  him 
why  he  did  it,  as  he  was  a  notorious  sinner.  He  told 
them  he  did  it  because  he  wanted  his  sins  forgiven.  He 
was  no  Christian,  but  an  eucharolater,  i.  e.,  an  idolater 


1 46  Altuujocraphy    0? 

worshipping  the  Lord's  sacrament;  just  like  the  man 
who  receives  baptism  in  order  for  the  remission  of  his 
sins. 

Another  form  of  idolatry  common  in  Christian  lands 
is  ecclesiolatry,  i.  e.,  church  worship.  It  is  very  exten- 
sive and  growing"  rapidly  and  is  awfully  detrimental  to 
spirituality.  I  have  often  known  a  congregation  to  back- 
slide while  building  a  fine  edifice,  after  the  occupancy 
of  which  they  never  more  had  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the 
old-time  power.  God  was  grieved  away  because  they 
worshipped  the  fine  edifice.  Oh,  how  pertinent  for  us  to 
constantly  pray,  like  the  Apostle  John,  "Little  children, 
keep  yourselves  from  idols." 

The  retention  of  pure  spirituality  is  really  a  delicate 
matter.  This  world  is  so  full  of  sin,  and  Satan  so  wise 
and  influential  that  he  is  always  managing  to  lasso  Chris- 
tians in  some  way  and  get  them  to  worship  him  instead 
of  God,  which  is  actually  done  in  all  cases  of  idolatry. 
We  are  now  having  a  universal  fight  all  along  this  line, 
to  keep  the  holiness  people  in  the  pure  simplicity  of  their 
experiences,  contented  to  worship  the  Lord  alone;  walk- 
ing patiently,  joyfully  and  triumphantly  with  an  unseen 
God ;  perfectly  satisfied  with  Him,  independently  of  all 
creatures.  Oh,  how  blessed  it  is  to  be  lost  in  Jesus,  sing- 
ing as  we  go,  "You  may  have  all  this  world,  but  give  me 
Jesus ;"  profoundly  and  jubilantly  sunk  away  into  His 
glorious  divinity,  and  more  than  satisfied  with  Him ! 

Pyrolatry.  This  word  is  from  pur,  fire,  and  latria, 
worship,  therefore  it  means  the  worship  of  fire.  In  all 
ages  of  the  world  there  have  been  fire-worshippers.  It 
is  said  that  an  old  man  called  at  Abraham's  tent  ere  the 
sun  was  going  down  and  asked  him  for  lodging.  Of 
course  he  granted  it,  as  the  Bible  makes  hospitality  ex- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  147 

ceedingly  prominent  in  religion.  In  the  early  ages  of 
the  world,  when  there  were  so  few  people  in  it,  a  person 
lodging  out  alone  through  the  night  was  in  great  danger 
of  being  devoured  by  a  wild  beast.  So  Abraham  took 
in  the  old  man  and  gave  him  his  supper.  Afterward  he 
asked  him  to  engage  with  him  in  the  worship  of  Jehovah. 
The  man  asked  to  be  excused,  observing  that  he  was  a 
fire-worshipper  and  never  worshipped  any  other  god. 
Abraham  tried  in  vain  to  prevail  on  him  to  join  with 
him  in  the  worship  of  his  God,  but  signally  failed.  Fin- 
ally he  told  him  that  if  he  could  not  worship  his  God, 
he  could  not  lodge  in  his  tent.  Still  he  persisted  in  his 
refusal.  Then  Abraham  led  him  to  the  tent  door  and 
opened  it.  When  the  wayfarer  walked  out  into  the 
howling  storm,  God  spoke  to  Abraham,  and  said, 
"Abraham,  I  have  borne  with  that  old  man's  idolatry  a 
hundred  years;  can  you  not  stand  him  one  night?"  This 
knocked  over  Abraham's  objections,  so,  dashing  out  into 
the  darkness,  he  shouted  aloud,  "Come  back  and  stay 
with  me."  Then  the  old  man  returned  into  his  tent  and 
said,  "What  sort  of  a  man  are  you  ?  You  drove  me  off, 
and  now  you  call  me  back."  "Oh,"  says  Abraham,  "my 
God  spoke  to  me  and  said  He  had  borne  with  your 
idolatry  for  a  hundred  years,  and  asked  if  I  could  not 
stand  you  one  night."  Then  the  old  man  said,  "If  that 
is  the  sort  of  a  God  you  have,  please  tell  me  more  about 
Him."  Therefore  there  was  no  going  to  bed  that  night. 
Abraham  proceeded  at  once  to  tell  him  about  the  great 
Jehovah,  who  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and 
everything  in  them,  and  the  old  fellow  was  so  interested 
and  Abraham  so  delighted  with  an  appreciative  auditor, 
while  lie  preached  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  for 
Jehovah    was   the   excarnate   Christ,   that   they   mutually 


148  Autobiography   op 

sat  up  all  night,  and  before  day  the  old  pyrolater  was  a 
genuine  convert  to  the  God  of  the  Bible. 

While  T  was  in  India,  I  became  pretty  well  acquainted 
with  the  Parsees,  who  worship  fire.  Zoroaster  was  a 
great  and  good  man,  who  lived  in  Persia  five  hundred 
years  B.  C,  contemporary  with  Buddha  in  India  and 
Confucius  in  China.  These  three  were  the  lights  of  the 
East  in  their  day,  and  have  seven  or  eight  hundred  mil- 
lions of  followers  now  in  the  great,  dark  Orient.  If 
they  were  living  they  would  be  Christians  this  day.  Of 
this  I  am  assured,  because  they  walked  in  all  the  light 
they  had.  But  in  the  absence  of  a  Bible  and  living  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ  came,  they  walked  in  com- 
paratively dim  light,  doubtless  doing  the  best  they  could. 
Their  followers  are  now  idolaters,  actually  worshipping 
these  men,  a  thing  they  would  utterly  have  repudiated 
while  living. 

Zoroaster  was  the  great  founder  of  the  fire  worship. 
It  had  some  votaries  before  his  day,  as  above  mentioned, 
but  he  was  its  greatest  exponent,  establishing  the  wor- 
ship of  fire,  earth,  air  and  water,  which  he  and  his  fol- 
lowers to  this  day  denominate  the  four  elements ;  in 
which  they  were  entirely  mistaken,  as  none  of  them  are 
elements.  Fire  is  an  incandescent  air,  for  it  may  be 
any  solid  substance.  Water  is  a  compound  of  oxygen 
and  hydrogen.  Atmosphere  is  a  mixture  of  oxygen  and 
nitrogen.  The  earth  consists  of  sixty-three  elements  in 
a  vast  diversity  of  proportions. 

Satan  has  a  great  spite  at  the  holiness  people,  and  is 
doing  his  best  to  tilt  them  away  into  idolatry  in  some 
of  its  forms  and  phases.  You  can  only  retain  the  ex- 
perience and  have  the  renl  victory  while  you  are  simple- 
hearted  and  see  Jesus  only.     When  you  begin  to  give, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  149 

attention  to  other  things,  spiritual  decline  supervene- 
quickly.  In  sanctification  you  get  married  to  the  Lord, 
then  and  there  forever  discarding  all  other  lovers,  e.  g., 
churchisms,  ordinances,  lodgery,  etc.  The  water  god 
is  now  making  a  fearful  raid  on  the  holiness  people,  and 
they  are  here  and  there  trending  away  into  hydrolatry, 
from  which  no  one  can  steer  clear  who  does  not  take 
Jesus  for  everything  and  let  everything  else  go.  Es- 
pecially in  the  South,  pyrolatry  has  prevailed  in  -differ- 
ent localities,  and  somewhat  in  the  West.  I  have  en- 
countered people  who  preach  a  baptism  of  fire  separate 
and  distinct  from  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Their  prin- 
cipal Scripture  is  Matthew  3:11,  "I  indeed  baptize  you 
with  water  unto  repentance.  .  .  .  but  He  will  baptize 
you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire."  The  English  version 
erroneously  says,  "He  will  baptize  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire."  N.  B.  The  last  "with"  is  not  in 
the  original.  The  true  reading  is,  "He  will  baptize  you 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire."  In  Ephesians  4:  5,  Paul 
positively  tells  us  that  there  is  but  one  baptism  ;  that  our 
Savior  Himself  administers  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
fire.  1  Cor.  12:  13,  "By  one  Spirit  we  are  all  baptized 
into  one  body,  .  .  .  and  have  been  all  made  to  drink 
into  one  Spirit."  Here  you  see  the  charming  beauty  of 
the  spiritual  unity  which  characterizes  the  kingdom  of 
God.  There  is  but  one  body  in  all  the  earth,  and  that 
body  is  the  Church,  as  the  Word  positively  says. 

The  moment  a  soul  is  regenerated  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  "born  from  above,"  (John  3 : 7)  that  soul  be- 
comes a  member  of  God's  universal  Church,  the  body  of 
Christ.  Jesus  never  baptizes  the  devil's  children ;  the 
children  of  God  only  are  subjects  of  His  baptism  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire.     No  one  can  possibly  deny  that 


150  Autobiography   op 

this  one  baptism  is  that  which  the  Savior  gives  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  as  Paul  here  catalogues  it  in  the 
beautiful  chain  of  salvation,  which  consists  of  seven 
links — one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one  body,  one 
hope,  one  God  the  Father,  one  Holy  Spirit — constituting 
an  indefragable  chain  which  lifts  every  faithful  soul 
from  earth  to  glory ;  and  all  pure  as  gold.  Snrely  no  one 
would  be  so  silly  as  to  put  a  water  link  in  that  chain, 
since  you  know  in  that  case  the  chain  would  be  weak  as 
water,  as  it  can  be  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link. 

There  is  no  danger  of  getting  too  much  fire,  if  it  is 
that  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  God  gives.  But  remem- 
ber, Satan  is  the  great  counterfeiter  who  actually  coun- 
terfeits everything  that  God  does  in  order  to  deceive  the 
uncircumcised.  Therefore  take  all  the  fire  you  can  get, 
if  you  are  sure  it  is  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  How 
can  I  know  that?  Because  it  will  be  the  fire  of  perfect 
Divine  love,  for  God  and  all  mankind;  and  this  can  only 
come  into  your  heart  when  the  Holy  Ghost  pours  it  out. 
Romans  5 :  5,  "The  Divine  love  of  God  is  poured  out," 
not  shed  abroad,  as  in  the  E.  V.,  (which  might  apply  to 
human  love,  which  has  no  salvation  in  it)  ;  but  this 
Divine  agapce  is  only  native,  in  the  heart  of  God,  and 
always  exotic  in  the  human  heart,  in  which  the  philia, 
human  love,  is  indigenous ;  but  it  has  no  salvation  in  it. 
You  see  that  the  rich  man  in  Hell  had  the  latter ;  he 
loved  his  brothers  and  wanted  to  send  a  missionary  to 
get  them  saved  before  they  came  on  his  track  to  that 
awful  place  of  torment. 

Perfect  love  is  the  hottest  thing  you  will  find  in  the 
world.  When  people  profess  sanctification,  like  some 
identified  with  the  "Burning  Bush,"  and  yet  mercilessly 
cartoon  the  Lord's  people,  they  thus  advertise  their  own 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  151 

spurious  profession  to  the  world,  as  perfect  love  speaks 
no  ill  of  its  neighbor.  This  perfect  love  discriminates 
between  sin  and  the  sinner,  loving  the  latter  enough  to 
die  for  him,  but  hating  the  former  with  an  uncompro- 
mising indignation,  as  God  cannot  look  upon  sin  with 
the  least  degree  of  allowance.  When  people  become 
unteachable,  we  know  that  old  Adam  is  not  dead  in 
them,  for  in  that  case  they  would  be  meek,  lowly,  humble, 
and  teachable,  like  little  Samuel,  whom  God  called  to 
the  prophet's  office  at  the  early  age  of  six  years,  and 
who  said,  "Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  Oh, 
how  unteachable  people  need  the  one  baptism  which 
Jesus  alone  can  give,  to  burn  up  their  pride,  egotism 
and  vanity,  with  the  fires  of  the  Holy  Ghost ! 

There  is  no  probability  that  you  will  ever  get  too 
much  fire  if  it  is  the  right  kind.  N.  B.  It  must  be  the 
fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  burning  up  carnality  and  making 
the  love  which  you  received  in  regeneration,  perfect. 
Satan  was  the  great  archangel  Lucifer,  before  he  fell, 
towering  above  the  heavenly  host  in  his  transcendent 
intellectual  enduement.  A  great  preacher  loses  his  hold 
on  God  and  backslides,  but  still  to  a  large  extent  retains 
his  intellectual  power  and  brilliancy.  He  still  has  that 
copious  thesaurus  of  classical  lore  and  diversified  learn- 
ing, intellectual,  metaphysical,  ethical,  sesthetical  and 
historical,  which  characterized  him  while  walking  with 
God  in  the  beauty  of  holiness.  After  Lucifer  in  Heaven 
forfeited  his  allegiance  to  God,  and  was  cast  out,  he 
still  retained,  and  to  this  day  very  largely  retains,  his 
wonderful  power  of  diagnosis,  interpenetration,  strata- 
gem, acumen  and  shrewdness,  which  he  brings  into  avail- 
ability in  the  abduction  of  millions  from  the  ways  of 
truths  and  righteousness.     When  you  go  to  seeking  fire, 


152  Autobiography   of 

he  is  ready,  robed  as  an  angel  of  light,  to  slip  in  adroitly 
and  quietly  like  a  weasel  and  give  you  wild-fire  and  fox- 
fire, to  magnetize  your  longing  eyes,  bewilder  and  lead 
you  astray  like  the  will-o'-the-wisp,  till  you  are  entangled 
in  the  dismal  swamps  of  his  wild  hallucinations,  till  he  can 
get  you  off  on  some  tangent,  gradually  alienating  you 
from  the  simplicity  which  is  in  Christ.  You  start  out 
from  Union  Station  on  the  Grand  Trunk  line  to  Chicago. 
Your  train  strikes  a  sidetrack,  which  runs  so  parallel 
with  the  main  trunk  that  you  think  surely  you  are  right. 
But  it  gradually  deflects  more  and  more ;  night  falls  and 
you  take  a  sleep,  wake,  and  ask  the  conductor,  and  find 
that  you  have  gotten  entirely  turned  around  and  are 
running  back  the  other  way.  This  illustration  would  be 
more  applicable  in  India,  where  they  never  tell  you  when 
you  reach  your  destination.  You  have  to  attend  to  that 
yourself,  or  they  will  just  literally  carry  you  away. 

We  have  no  commandment  to  seek  anything  but  the 
Lord.  Consequently  if  you  lack  fire,  come  to  Him  for  it. 
The  rich  young  man  asked  after  he  had  told  Jesus  that  ho 
kept  all  the  commandments  from  his  youth,  "What  lack  I 
yet?"  Jesus  told  him  to  consecrate  all  and  follow  Him, 
and  he  should  have  treasure  in  Heaven.  When  you  sink 
away  in  the  sweet  will  of  God,  and  take  Jesus  for  every- 
thing, rest  assured  that  you  will  lack  nothing.  T  have 
found  some  of  our  brethren  so  far  sidetracked  on  the  fire 
line  as  to  become  unteachable.  When  I  gave  them  the 
positive  Word  of  God,  certifying  that  there  is  one  bap- 
tism, (Eph.  4:  5),  which  John  the  Baptist,  (Matt.  3:  11), 
says  Jesus  gives  us  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  they 
yet  contended  for  a  separate  baptism  of  fire  after  that  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Thus  they  threw  wide  open  the  door 
for  Satan  to  come  in  and  give  them  wild-fire  and  fox- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  153 

fire  to  run  into  incorrigible  fanaticism  in  this  life,  so  he 
can  give  them  Hell  fire  in  the  world  to  come.  God  help 
ns  to  beware  lest  we  should  become  wise  above  what  is 
written. 

You  are  only  safe  when  in  perfect  harmony  with  God's 
Word.  The  baptism  of  fire  as  separate  and  distinct  from 
that  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire  which  Jesus  gives  is  posi- 
tively contradictory  to  God's  Word  and  utterly  without 
support.  Look  out,  there  is  danger  in  the  dark !  I  have 
known  many  of  our  good  holiness  people  in  the  last  thirty 
years  to  go  off  on  a  tangent,  alien  from  the  precious 
Word,  till  their  lights  went  out  and  left  them  like  Samp- 
son, shorn  of  their  locks.  The  old  prophet  says,  "The  en- 
trance of  Thy  Word  giveth  light."  In  the  absence  of  the 
Word  we  take  the  momentous  responsibility  of  judgment 
and  eternity  into  our  own  hands.  When  we  refuse  to 
move  an  inch  without  a  clear,  "Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  then 
we  are  on  safe  ground,  God  bearing  the  momentous  re- 
sponsibility. He  is  able  to  bear  it ;  we  are  not.  Then 
let  us  beware  of  wild-fire  and  fanaticism ;  they  have  de- 
railed our  predecessors,  running  them  into  wreckage  and 
endless  woe.  If  you  are  a  child  of  God,  Jesus  is  ready 
to  give  you  the  one  baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire 
which  crucifies  old  Adam,  bears  him  into  the  atonement 
and  gives  you  perfect  love  and  victory  forever. 

The  Lord  gave  me  this  experience  thirty-eight  years 
ago  and  to  His  good  providence  and  His  superabounding 
grace  I  am  indebted  more  than  tongue  can  tell.  If  I  had 
not  received  sanctification,  I  would  now  be  a  superannu- 
ated preacher,  laid  on  the  shelf  in  the  Kentucky  Confer- 
ence, where  I  was  born  and  expected  to  spend  my  life. 
When  presiding  elder  thirty  years  ago,  the  hardest  work 
I  ever  had  to  do  ws  to  help  superannuated  preachers. 


T54  Autobiography    otf 

We  never  superannuated  a  man  because  he  was  a  hun- 
dred years  old,  but  because  he  had  lost  his  efficiency  and 
we  could  get  no  place  for  him. 

I  remember  once  when  Bishop  Wightman,  of  precious 
memory,  was  in  the  chair  and  we  had  on  hand  an  old  man 
who  had  a  splendid  education  and  had  been  a  hero  in  his 
day,  but  had  survived  his  efficiency,  so  that  we  could  find 
no  place  where  the  people  were  willing  to  receive  him. 
The  good  Bishop  having  tried  the  other  six  presiding 
elders,  and  having  signally  failed  to  get  a  place  for  him, 
finally  came  to  me  and  said,  "Brother  Godbey,  can  you 
not  give  that  dear  old  man  an  appointment?"  I  respond- 
ed :  "Bishop,  I  am  sorry  I  have  no  work  where  they  will 
be  willing  to  receive  him.  You  can  appoint  him  in  my 
district  but  it  will  be  under  my  protest."  Then  he  said : 
"Now,  Brother  Godbev,  I  appoint  you  a  committee  of  one 
to  wait  on  him  and  notify  him  that  if  he  does  not  ask  for 
a  location,  we  must  superannuate  him,  nolens  volens, 
willing  or  unwilling."  He  broke  down  and  cried  like  a 
child,  his  gushing  tears  copiously  flowing.  My  tender 
heart  broke,  too,  and  we  mutually  wept  together,  and  I 
said :  "I  would  rather  far  be  beaten  with  rods  like  Paul 
and  Silas  than  to  help  superannuate  another  old  man." 
I  am  now  an  older  man  than  he  was,  with  more  ministe- 
rial years  behind  me,  but  with  open  doors  enough  before 
me  for  a  thousand  men.  If  I  could  be  a  thousand  men  to- 
day, I  would  have  plenty  of  work  for  all.  Do  you  not 
know  that  sanctification  makes  us  young  forever?  So 
my  indebtedness  to  sanctification  no  tongue  can  tell. 

Satan  is  wonderfully  tricky  with  the  preachers,  telling 
them  that  if  they  get  sanctified  nobody  will  want  to  hear 
them  preach ;  whereas  precisely  the  opposite  is  true.  Be- 
fore I  was  sanctified  I  was  scarcely  known  outside  of  my 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  155 

own  Conference.  Now  I  have  not  only  America  throw- 
ing before  me  wide  open  doors  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  but  Europe,  Asia,  Africa  and  Oceania.  I  preached 
for  three  months  in  India  night  and  day,  nobody  recog- 
nizing me  as  a  feeble  old  man.  Oh,  how  delightful  it 
would  be  for  me  to  go  back  to  India  and  preach  till  the 
angels  come  for  me.  You  get  truly  sanctified,  lose  your- 
self in  Jesus,  sinking  out  of  self  into  the  sweet  will  of  God, 
and  you  will  have  more  open  doors  than  you  know  what 
to  do  with.  Here  I  am  at  the  end  of  fifty-three  year's 
ministry,  and  literally  bewildered  whither  to  turn  because 
I  have  grand  open  doors,  not  only  in  the  homeland,  but 
girdling  the  globe. 

Satan  tells  you  that  if  you  get  sanctified  your  Confer- 
ence  will   stick   you   off   into   a   starvation   appointment, 
therefore  he  terrifies  you  with  the  rattle  of  dry  bones  and 
tells  you  this  will  be  your  fate — you  will  starve  to  death. 
Do  you  know  that  if  you  get  filled  with  the  sweet,  perfect 
will  of  God,  you  will  want  that  very  starvation  appoint- 
ment?   This  perfect  love  casts  out  the  fear  of  starvation, 
unpopularity,   persecution,   and   everything  else.     When 
the  Lord  gave  me  this  experience,  I  asked  my  presiding 
elder  to  request  the  Bishop  to  give  me  the  poorest,  hard- 
est, and  roughest  appointment  in  the  Conference.     There 
were  always  many  petitions  in  the  Bishop's  Cabinet,  but 
in  the  opposite  direction,  racing  after  the  rich  appoint- 
ments.    When  the  presiding  elder  presented  my  request, 
(as  the  report  reached  me),  the  Bishop  said:  "Tell  me 
what  kind  of  a  brother  this  is  who  sends  in  a  request  like 
this,  such  as  I  have  never  heard  before."     My  presiding 
elder  responded :  "Bishop,  a  great  change  has  recently 
come  over  this  brother  and  he  is  now  so  flooded  with  love 
for  everybody  and  so  delighted  with  Jesus  that  he  would 


156  Autobiography    of 

gladly  go  to  the  North  Pole  and  freeze  to  death,  or  to  the 
equatorial  deserts  and  burn  to  death,  or  to  the  swamps 
and  die  of  malaria,  or  to  the  mountains  and  starve,  all 
for  Jesus'  sake."  A  tear  came  into  the  old  Bishop's  eye 
and  he  said  :  "Brethren,  here  you  see  you  have  a  preach- 
er on  your  hands  who  will  not  provide  for  himself;  there- 
fore it  is  incumbent  on  us  to  provide  for  him."  What 
was  the  result?  Why,  I  can  say  to  the  credit  of  my  Con- 
ference that  they  never  did  give  me  an  appointment  that 
did  not  give  us  a  great  deal  more  living  than  we  knew 
what  to  do  with,  thus  preparing  us  to  help  all  the  poor  we 
met.  The  preachers  are  all  scared  worse  than  they  are 
hurt.  Oh,  how  fond  Satan  is  of  playing  the  bluff  game 
on  them  !  If  they  only  could  see  the  glorious  liberty  and 
unutterable  brightness  flooding  life  with  constant  sun- 
shine; if  they  would  only  come  over  the  swelling  Jordan 
to  the  land  where  the  flowers  never  fade  and  the  fruit 
never  fails,  where  corn  and  wine  abound  and  milk  and 
honey  flow,  and  the  sorrows  of  the  past  go  into  glorious 
eclipse,  they  would  all  expedite  their  flight  from  the 
howling  wilderness. 

I  was  a  member  of  two  honorable  lodges  in  which  they 
complimented  me  with  the  office  of  chaplain.  To  these  I 
never  did  return  a  single  time  after  that  memorable  epoch 
when  the  Lord  baptized  my  soul  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  fire.  Truly  I  never  had  time  to  go  back ;  I  was  too 
busy  preaching  the  Gospel.  The  same  fires  that  cremat- 
ed the  Free  Mason,  the  Odd  Fellow,  the  collegiate  pres- 
ident and  the  big  preacher,  not  only  burned  up  Method- 
ism, but  creedism  of  every  form  and  phase ;  leaving  me 
nothing  but  God  and  His  precious  Word,  which  from 
that  day  have  been  my  joy  and  song.  The  mighty  men  of 
the  Holiness  Movement,  Tnskip,  McDonald,  Wood,  Keene 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  157 

Updegraff,  Dodge,  Janell,  Dunlap,  Fillman,  Knapp,  and 
others  whose  names  are  in  the  Book  of  Life,  have  gone 
to  Glory.  I  am  now  one  of  the  oldest  men  in  the  Move- 
ment. I  will  soon  exchange  the  battle-field  for  the 
Mount  of  Victory,  joining  my  triumphant  predecessors. 
I  am  jealous  for  the  cause  of  God  and  Holiness ;  it  is 
everything  to  me. 

Hydrolatry,  pyrolatry  and  ecclesiolatry^  and  other  de- 
vices of  Satan  are  now  prominent  in  the  formidable  bat- 
teries which  Hell  is  turning  against  us.  These  specious 
forms  of  idolatry,  along  with  eucharolatry,  augment  the 
formidable  columns  of  ritualism  and  legalism,  which  on 
all  sides  are  shoving  out  greased  planks,  with  all  the 
plausibility  which  the  sophistry  of  heretics  and  fallen 
preachers  can  bring  to  bear,  to  decoy  the  eye  from  con- 
templating the  glorious  Sun  of  righteousness.  This  is 
our  only  security  against  the  refrigerating  atmosphere  of 
that  dead  legalism  which,  like  a  ghost  from  the  eternal 
world,  has  crept  into  the  churches  and  breathed  on  them 
the  pestilential  spiritual  malaria.  It  has  proven  a  wither- 
ing sirocco,  blighting  every  blooming  flower,  blasting 
all  the  fruits  and  throwing  a  dark  shadow  over  the  once 
resplendent  rainbow  spanning  the  firmament  and  lighting 
up  the  atmosphere  with  the  beauty  of  holiness.  Truly  it 
behooves  us  to  ring  the  alarm  bell  and  blow  the  trump 
of  warning  all  along  the  embattled  line,  if  we  do  not  want 
our  Sampsons  to  lose  their  locks  on  the  laps  of  the  world's 
Delilahs. 

We  have  holiness  churches  now  in  controversy  about 
ordinances.  It  would  be  pertinent  that  they  should  re- 
member Paul,  (Col.  1  :  20),  "If  you  arc  dead  along  with 
Christ  from  the  elements  of  the  world,  why  are  you  sub- 
ject to  ordinances  as  living  in  the  zvorld?"    Entire  sane- 


158  Autobiography    of 

tification  nails  old  Adam  to  the  cross  and  with  him  all  of 
the  ordinances.  These  ordinances  symholize  the  law 
from  which  Jesus  has  made  us  as  free  as  angels,  not  only 
having  kept  it  for  us  in  His  life,  but  paid  the  penalty  for 
us  in  His  death.  Our  old  man  was  crucified  with  Him, 
(Rom.  6:6),  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed; 
therefore  old  Adam  was  nailed  to  the  cross  and  with  him 
the  ordinances  of  the  ritual,  which  symbolizes  the  law ; 
which  our  Savior  pertinently  and  eternally  satisfies.  In 
reference  to  these  ordinances  and  churchisms  of  every 
kind,  we,  like  Paul,  should  be  all  things  to  all  men,  that 
we  may  save  some ;  remembering  that  the  man  of  God  is 
not  to  strive.  Therefore  you  cannot  indulge  in  contro- 
versy without  disobeying  God  and  grieving  the  Holy 
Spirit,  consequently  suffering  experimental  detriment. 

After  circumcision  was  effete  and  defunct,  Paul  took 
Timothy  and  circumcised  him,  on  account  of  the  Jews  in 
that  country,  as  they  all  knew  that  his  father  was  a  Greek. 
Paul  did  it  simply  to  render  Timothy's  ministry  more  ac- 
ceptable to  the  Jews.  For  the  same  reason,  pursuant  to 
their  request,  I  immersed  the  "Texas  boys"  in  the  river 
Jordan.  While  sanctified  people  are  gloriously  saved 
from  legalism  in  all  its  forms  and  phases,  and  rise  so  far 
above  them  that  they  have  really  gone  into  eternal  eclipse, 
yet  we  are  to  be  careful  not  to  put  a  stumbling-block  in 
the  way  of  our  brother,  consequently  carefully  and  pray- 
erfully abstaining  from  all  controversy.  We  are  to  rec- 
ognize the  perfect,  glorious  spiritual  freedom  of  every 
brother,  letting  them  walk  in  all  the  light  God  gives 
them,  remembering  the  Pauline  rebuke,  "Who  art  thou 
that  judgest  another  man's  servant?  To  his  own  master 
he  standeth  or  falleth." 

Sanctified  people,  if  true  to  their  experiences,  can  live 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  159 

together  and  in  perfect  brotherly  love  labor  together  for 
the  salvation  of  souls ;  though  some  have  the  triune  im- 
mersion of  Doweyism,  others  the  single  immersion  of  the 
Baptists,  others  the  single  effusion  of  the  Presbyterians, 
others  the  triune  effusion  of  the  Lutherans,  which  I  wit- 
nessed administered  to  about  one  hundred  by  their  native 
pastor  in  the  greatest  leper  asylum  in  the  world,  after  I 
had  preached  to  them  on  the  baptism  which  Jesus  gives  to 
His  people. 

Some  holiness  churches  are  non-ritualistic,  as  the 
Friends,  who  have  never  received  water  baptism  in  any 
way  nor  been  convicted  for  it. 

Thus  I  have  mentioned  for  you  a  model  holiness  church, 
whose  members  are  gloriously  saved  from  ordinances, 
as  all  truly  sanctified  people  are.  These  ordinances  we 
wear  as  a  loose  garment,  ready  to  drop  them  off  the  mo- 
ment they  conflict  with  the  glory  of  God  and  the  interest 
of  His  kingdom,  to  which  we  gladly  and  cheerfully  sub- 
ordinate them. 

During  all  of  my  boyhood  life,  the  Campbellites  were 
constantly  preaching  all  over  that  country  immersion  in 
order  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  clamorously  mocking 
all  effusion  baptisms,  pronouncing  them  farcial  and 
worthless,  and  boldly  preaching  everybody  to  Hell  who 
had  not  received  immersion  for  remission  of  sins.  At 
the  same  time  they  denied  the  personality  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  identifying  Him  with  the  Word  and  preaching 
that  the  literal  Word  is  the  Spirit,  burlesquing  and  ridi- 
culing the  very  existence  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

One  of  the  greatest  leaders  they  ever  had  in  that  sec- 
tion of  the  country,  who  stood  at  the  front  of  their  Church 
for  many  years  and  was  editor  of  their  paper,  "Apostol- 
ic Times,"  on  one  occasion,  when  preaching  to  a  great 


160  Autobiography    of 

audience  at  Kirkville,  Madison  Co.,  came  down  out  of 
the  pulpit,  and  stooping  down  looked  under  the  benches 
and  said,  "Please  excuse  me,  I  am  looking  for  that  little 
man  called  the  Holy  Ghost."  Then  he  followed  with  one 
of  his  powerful  sermons  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  denying 
His  personality  altogether.  They  actually  united  all 
their  forces  in  a  constant  and  persistent  effort  to  elimi- 
nate from  the  popular  mind  the  very  existence  of  God  in 
the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

You  cannot  conceive  of  the  awful  detriment  which 
supervened  to  the  popular  mind  through  that  predominant 
influence  perpetrated  solidly  for  a  few  generations.  The 
normal  result  is  the  development  of  a  great  crop  of  infi- 
dels, who  at  the  same  time  boldly  claim  themselves  to  be 
the  only  Christians  in  the  world,  incessantly  repudiating 
the  claims  of  all  others  even  to  the  use  of  the  name,  and 
arrogating  it  to  themselves  in  an  exclusive  sense.  They 
constantly  keep  the  lines  distinctly  drawn  between  them- 
selves and  all  other  denominations ;  contemptuously  and 
condemnatorally  denouncing  them  "sects,"  in  contradis- 
tinction to  themselves  the  "Christians,"  exclusively  of  all 
others.  At  the  same  time  they  sedulously,  vociferously 
and  incessantly  denied  that  they  ever  were  a  denomina- 
tion, claiming  to  be  the  only  Christians  in  the  world  be- 
cause they  had  no  creed  and  took  the  Bible  as  their  only 
authority  ^  rejecting  all  sectarian  names,  and  were  conse- 
quently the  Christians.  They  often  said  that  if  the  Savior 
was  on  the  earth  He  would  walk  through  the  towns,  pass- 
ing by  every  other  church  edifice  but  theirs,  which  He 
would  enter  and  recognize  them  for  His  people,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  others.  Their  constant  and  unequivocal 
preaching,  uncompromisingly  condemnatory  of  all  the 
people  who  claimed   Holy  Ghost  experimental   religion, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  161 

not  only  denied  the  personal  existence  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
simply  identifying  Him  with  the  Word  and  utterly  elim- 
inating Him  from  the  Trinity,  but  ridiculed  His  presence 
and  operation  on  the  hearts  of  the  people,  so  that  they 
developed  an  awful  trend  of  the  popular  mind  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  unpardonable  sin.  (Matt.  12:  30-32.) 
This  our  Savior  pronounces  the  "blasphemy  of  the  Spir- 
it." The  meaning  of  blasphemy  is  contemptuous  treat- 
ment of  God.  In  this  awful  blasphemy  o"f  the  Holy 
Ghost  their  preachers  led  the  way,  and  the  people  fol- 
lowed them  like  sheep  follow  a  shepherd. 

The  normal  trend  of  their  work  was  to  drive  all  real 
conviction,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  alone  can  give,  out  of 
the  popular  mind,  and  superinduce  a  species  of  bold,  pre- 
dominant infidelity  on  all  sides,  while  at  the  same  time 
claiming  to  be  the  only  genuine  article  of  Christianity  in 
all  the  country,  and  consigning  everything  else  to  Hell. 
The  inevitable  result  of  this  pseudo  Gospel  was  to  actu- 
ally eliminate  a  knowledge  of  God  entirely  out  of  the 
country.  This  conclusion  follows  as  a  normal  sequence 
from  God's  Word,  which  plainly  teaches  that  no  one  can 
know  the  Son  of  God  without  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  He  is 
His  only  revelator.  (1  Cor.  12:  4.)  We  read  in  our 
Savior's  preaching  the  positive  statement  that  "No  one 
knows  the  Father  but  the  Son  and  he  to  whom  the  Son 
reveals  Him."  Therefore  you  see  that  when  people  re- 
ject the  Holy  Ghost  they  never  can  know  either  the  Fath- 
er or  the  Son;  consequently  those  who  do  so  actually  ret- 
rogress into  practical  heathenism. 

Their  system  of  theology  is  so  small  and  simple  that 
they  never  lack  preachers,  because  any  one  who  has  natu- 
ral colloquial  and  oratorical  gifts  can,  in  a  very  little  time 
learn  all  of  their  doctrines,  which  really  are  condensed  in 


162  Autobiography   of 

the  simple  statement,  "Immersion  for  the  remission  of 
sins."  This  is  really  their  only  positive  doctrine.  All  the 
balance  is  negative,  denying  not  only  the  personal  exist- 
ence of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  all  of  His  mighty  works,  in 
illuminations,  conviction,  conversion,  regeneration,  wit- 
ness of  the  Spirit  and  sanctiflcation. 

The  personal  Father  sits  upon  the  throne  of  the  uni- 
verse, while  millions  of  worlds  wheel  in  their  orbits,  re- 
sponsive to  His  sovereign  mandate.  The  personal  Son 
now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  and  administers 
the  mediatorial  kingdom  of  human  redemption,  through 
the  personal  Holy  Ghost  whom  He  sends  into  the  world 
to  shine  into  every  heart,  convict  every  soul,  save  every 
penitent,  sanctify  every  believer,  and  reveal  the  glorifie  1 
Savior  to  every  human  soul.  He  gives  every  faithful  pil- 
grim all  needed  help,  with  the  eye  of  Jesus,  the  infallible 
Paragon,  to  travel  the  King's  highway  of  Holiness,  suc- 
cessfully fighting  the  battles  and  winning  victories,  till  the 
probationary  war  is  ended  and  the  ipse  dixit  rings,  "It  is 
enough,  come  up  higher." 

Since  Campbellite  theology,  significantly  multum  in 
parvo,  "much  in  little,"  is  all  told  in  the  terse  phrase,  "Im- 
mersion for  the  remission  of  sins,"  they  can  all  quickly 
learn  to  graduate.  They  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  deny 
the  whole  curriculum  of  spiritual  truth,  in  which  they 
shrewdly  and  adroitly  bring  into  availability  wit,  humor, 
sarcasm,  ridicule,  burlesque,  and  even  the  awful  and  hor- 
rific blasphemy  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Hence  our  country 
swarmed  with  preachers  who,  to  all  spiritual  people,  sadly 
exposed  their  experimental  ignorance  of  God ;  e.  g.,  two 
of  them  were  holding  a  revival  meeting  and  doing  their 
best  to  get  joiners  all  the  time.  One  of  them  was  preach- 
ing a  powerful  sermon  against  experimental  religion  and 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  a.  M.  163 

assuring  the  people  that  there  is  no  such  thing,  and  prov- 
ing it  by  the  fact  that  he  did  not  have  it.  He  said :  "Here 
you  see  me ;  I  have  been  through  college  and  read  the 
Bible  through,  and  of  course  if  there  was  any  such  thing 
as  experimental  religion  I  would  have  found  it  and  would 
have  it.  But,  brethren,  I  tell  you  frankly  and  honestly  I 
have  never  seen  anything  of  it,  and  I  have  not  got  it." 
Then  turning  to  his  brother  preacher,  sitting  in  the 
pulpit,  he  said:  "Brother  Martin,  have  you  got  it?" 
He  spoke  up:  "No,  I  have  not  got  it."  Then  he  turned 
to  his  audience  and  said :  "I  prove  by  us  two  witnesses 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  Holy  Ghost  religion." 

Now  recognize  and  diagnose  that  meeting  for  a  mo- 
ment. You  see  two  sinners,  utterly  unacquainted  with 
God,  there  pretentiously  preaching  the  Gospel,  of  which 
they  were  utterly  ignorant  and  had  no  more  qualifications 
to  preach  than  a  Hottentot.  It  is  utterly  impossible  for 
a  man  to  preach  what  he  does  not  know.  The  Gospel  is 
not  a  speech  to  be  delivered,  but  "it  is  the  power  (dyna- 
mite) of  God  unto  salvation,  to  every  one  that  believeth." 
(Rom.  1 :  16.)  Power  is  something  to  be  known  and 
felt  experimentally.  People  who  have  no  experience  of 
personal  salvation  are  utterly  ignorant  of  the  Gospel. 

That  whole  country  was  inundated  with  that  awful 
infidelity,  its  adherents  clamoring  vociferously  for  the 
isolated  legalistic  dogma,  "Immersion  for  Remission," 
and  actually  fighting  with  all  their  might  the  whole  cur- 
riculum of  Gospel  truth,  even  denying  its  very  existence. 
So  long  had  they  overrun  that  country  with  this  uncom- 
promising belligerent  preaching,  denunciatory  and  con- 
demnatory of  the  great  spiritual  experimental  truth, 
which  really  constitutes  Bible  theology,  and  ever  warding 
off   opposition    by   constant    bantering   and    challenging. 


164  Autobiography   op 

that  they  actually  captured  the  ignorant  (spiritually) 
people  and  took  them  to  the  water  in  platoons.  They  re- 
quired nothing  in  the  way  of  antecedent  preparation,  ex- 
cept the  confession  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God ; 
then  they  immersed  them  for  the  remission  of  their  sins 
anJ.  warned  them  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  experiment- 
al religion. 

"^  ou  can  see  plainly  that  their  work  meant  recruiting 
souls  for  Satan,  because  this  church-joining  and  baptism, 
with  their  actual  admonitions  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
were  calculated  to  harden  their  hearts  and  stiffen  their 
necks,  "that  they  might  believe  a  lie  and  be  damned;" 
thus  leaving  folks  in  infinitely  worse  spiritual  plight  than 
when  they  found  them.  While  "Holy  Ghost"  and  "Holy 
Spirit"  are  precisely  synonymous,  there  being  but  one 
phrase  in  the  original,  to  hagion  pneuma;  (it  is  perfectly 
optionary  with  the  translator  to  render  it  "Holy  Ghost" 
or  "Holy  Spirit,"  as  he  may  prefer),  in  their  baptisms 
they  never  said  "Holy  Ghost,"  but  "Holy  Spirit,"  simply 
meaning  the  Word,  as  they  utterly  denied  the  person. 

The  Campbellites  boasted  over  their  good  confession, 
(Acts  8:  37),  that  of  the  eunuch  before  Philip  baptized 
him.  Alexander  Campbell  fought  all  of  the  human 
creeds  all  of  his  life,  and  boasted  that  he  took  the  Bible 
alone ;  therefore  he  adopted  this  one  question  as  the  soli- 
tary requirement  of  people  seeking  admission  into  his 
church.  At  present  no  scholar  believes  the  eunuch's  con- 
fession ever  was  in  the  Bible.  Erasmus,  a  noble,  godly 
preacher,  contemporary  with  Martin  Luther,  while 
transcribing  the  New  Testament,  studying  over  the  bap- 
tism of  the  eunuch,  concluded  that  there  ought  to  be  a 
confession  preceding  the  administration.  Therefore,  sup- 
posing that  some  careless  transcriber  had  left  it  out,  he 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  105 

composed  it  according  to  his  own  judgment  and  put  it  in. 
Afterwards  many  old  manuuscripts  were  discovered  and 
as  none  of  them  contained  it,  of  course,  it  became  a 
known  fact  that  it  had  never  been  in  the  Bible.  If  Camp- 
bell had  known  that,  he  would  not  have  used  it,  as  he  was 
so  stickleristical  for  the  Word,  which  I  confess  to  his 
honor. 

I  also  endorse  all  of  his  arguments  against  human 
creeds.  We  certainly,  as  he  earnestly  contended,  need  no 
creed  nor  authority  but  the  New  Testament,  which  is 
plain  on  everything  important  in  the  way  of  doctrine,  or- 
ganization, church  government  and  discipline.  While  he 
was  a  great  intellectualist  and  very  learned,  his  writings 
constantly  show  deficiency  in  spirituality.  The  dear  man 
actually  went  into  fanaticism  on  baptism,  making  it 
everything  in  the  gracious  economy,  while  the  Bible 
makes  it  nothing  but  the  outward  sign  of  inward  grace 
which  is  as  real  and  available  without  the  sign,  as  with  it. 
A  physician  has  a  perfect  right  to  put  up  his  sign;  yet 
he  is  just  as  good  and  efficient  in  curing  the  sick  with- 
out it  as  with  it.  Meanwhile  the  various  quacks,  who 
1  ill  instead  of  cure,  can  use  as  brilliant  a  sign  as  the  best 
doctor  in  the  world.  Hence  we  see  the  silly  nonsense  of 
attaching  saving  efficacy  to  the  mere  outward  sign.  It 
is  like  hanging  the  doctor's  sign  over  the  sick  bed  instead 
of  taking  the  panacea.  A  fanatic  is  a  person  who  per- 
mits a  theory  or  dogma  to  lead  him  away  from  God's 
Word.  So  long  as  you  rigidly  follow  the  precious  Word, 
you  will  never  go  into  fanaticism. 

The  Campbellites  utterly  deny  that  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  our  Savior's  baptism,  which  He  administers 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  now  on  the  earth.  They 
unanimously  tell  us  and  stoutly  contend  that  it  ceased 


166  Autobiography   of 

when  the  apostles  all  left  the  world.  As  a  rule  they 
limit  it  to  the  day  of  Pentecost.  In  this  they  flatly  con- 
tradict the  Word  of  God.  Therefore  we  know  they  are 
wrong.  Acts  2:39,  "For  the  promise  is  unto  you,  and 
to  your  children,  and  to  all  who  are  afar  off,  even  as 
many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call."  Peter  is  here 
talking  about  the  identical  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  fire  which  they  had  received  that  very  morning ; 
therefore  it  is  absolutely  undeniable  and  inevitable. 
When  people  flatly  contradict  God's  Word,  always  know 
that  they  are  clearly  gone  into  wild  fanaticism.  Those 
people  constantly  denounce  the  orthodox  Christians  of 
the  different  denominations  who  profess  experimental 
religion,  as  fanatics;  at  the  same  time  boasting  vocifer- 
ously that  they  are  the  Bible  people.  God's  true  people 
have  always  by  their  enemies  been  denominated  fanatics, 
and  such  we  are  from  their  standpoint.  Whereas  they 
call  us  fanatics,  and  do  not  prove  it  for  the  good  reason 
that  they  cannot,  we  know  we  are  not  fanatics.  We  be- 
lieve and  preach  nothing  but  the  plain  Word  of  God. 
without  twisting  or  perverting  it;  meanwhile  we  know 
that  they  are  fanatics  because  they  flatly  contradict  the 
Word  of  God. 

The  above  Scripture,  enunciated  by  Peter  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost,  irrefutably  contradicts  the  Campbellite 
dogma  which  restricts  our  Savior's  baptism  which  He 
administers  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire  to  that  day 
and  occasion,  because  Peter  here  is  so  clear  and  ex- 
plicit that  candor  and  veracity  cannot  possibly  mistake. 
Here  you  see  he  positively  says  that  this  baptism  which 
Jesus  had  given  him  that  day  is  for  "all  that  are  afar 
off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  may  call."  This 
refers  to  the  Gospel  call  which  is  still  going  on.    I  have 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  167 

preached  in  towns  where  they  said  they  never  had  heard 
this  call  before.  In  India  the  whole  country  has  been 
stirred,  especially  in  the  last  year,  with  the  literal  and 
actual  fulfillment  of  this  glorious  promise  during  the 
three  months  of  my  constant  preaching  there,  this  won- 
derful baptism  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire  which  con- 
stantly attended  our  ministry.  It  was  not  at  all  uncom- 
mon for  the  Spirit  to  fall  on  those  people,  and  they  would 
pray  through  to  God,  get  saved  and  sanctified  and  shout 
all  night.  Oh,  how  gloriously  is  God  this  day  fulfilling 
that  promise  among  the  benighted  pagans,  who  have 
awaited  the  coming  of  the  Gospel  herald  for  thousands 
of  dreary  years. 

Those  Campbellites  during  my  boyhood  spent  the 
most  of  their  pulpit  time  toiling,  sweating  and  vocifer- 
ating in  a  desperate  effort  to  drive  the  Holy  Ghost  from 
the  people.  When  they  had  fought  and  conquered  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  a  community,  of  course  they  had  things 
their  own  way,  with  nothing  to  do  but  to  get  the  people 
and  immerse  them  in  water.  Of  course  the  people  had 
to  take  their  word  for  it  and  conclude  that  their  sins 
were  forgiven  in  the  act  of  immersion.  As  the  preachers 
labored  persistently  to  convince  the  people  that  there 
was  no  such  a  thing  as  a  change  of  heart  and  a  spiritual 
experience,  of  course  when  they  got  them  completely 
under  their  influence  they  did  not  look  for  anything  of 
that  kind. 

After  immersion  for  remission,  they  only  required  con- 
verts to  live  a  moral  life,  abstaining  from  outward,  overt 
participation  in  the  vulgar  vices;  and  to  be  faithful 
church-goers,  obedient  to  the  active  duties  incumbent 
on  a  church  member.  The  idea  of  getting  to  where 
they  did  not  commit  sin  daily  and  hourly  they  utterly 


168  Autobiography   op 

ignored  and  ridiculed;  their  preachers  confessing  that 
they  sinned  daily  like  other  people,  and  preaching  to  peo- 
ple that  nobody  could  live  in  this  world  without  sin. 
They  are  simply  strict  and  rigid  legalists  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  They  preached  the  law  of  pardon,  confes- 
sion and  immersion  for  the  remission  of  all  their  past 
sins. 

They  positively  deny,  and  actually  in  their  debates  with 
me  affirmed  before  the  vast  multitudes  that  a  sinner  has 
no  right  to  pray,  and  if  he  does  God  does  not  hear  him. 
They  constantly  falsify  the  statement  of  the  man  who 
had  been  born  blind  and  whose  eyes  our  Savior  had 
opened  (John  9:  31),  "We  know  that  God  does  not  hear 
sinners,  but  if  any  one  may  be  a  worshipper  of  God  and 
doeth  His  will,  He  heareth  him."  They  always  used 
that  as  a  proof  that  a  sinner  has  no  right  to  pray,  and  if 
he  does  God  does  not  hear  him  nor  answer  his  prayer. 
You  see  in  this  that  they  wickedly  pervert  the  Word  of 
God.  This  man  was  answering  the  statement  of  the 
Pharisees  that  Jesus  was  a  sinner  because  He  did  not 
keep  the  Sabbath.  The  meaning  of  the  man  is  that  if 
Jesus  was  a  sinner  God  would  not  work  miracles  through 
His  instrumentality ;  whereas  in  the  same  sentence  he 
says  if  any  man  is  a  worshipper  of  God  He  does  hear 
him.  Every  penitent  sinner  bows  down  before  God  and 
does  worship  Him.  Therefore  you  see  this,  which  is  the 
only  passage  they  have  for  the  fact  that  a  sinner  has  no 
right  to  pray,  proves  the  very  opposite,  that  it  is  his 
glorious  privilege  to  pray,  and  when  he  does,  with  a 
broken  heart  and  contrite  spirit,  God  always  hears  him. 
That  is  an  illustration  of  the  audaciously  wicked  perver- 
sion to  which  those  dear  people  expose  God's  precious 
Word.    Repeatedly,  in  their  debates  with  me,  their  cham- . 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  169 

pion  exponent  (as  they  always  selected  the  best  they  had) 
affirmed  that  the  sinner  had  no  right  to  pray;  therefore 
you  see  they  take  the  work  of  salvation  entirely  out  of 
the  hands  of  God,  like  the  Roman  Catholic  priest  who, 
when  a  man  joined  his  church  and  asked  him  what  he 
was  to  do  to  be  saved,  said  to  him,  "Give  yourself  no 
concern  about  that;  rest  easy  and  I  will  attend  to  it. 
You  obey  me  and  I  will  see  to  your  soul."  Their  atti- 
tude is  literally  papistical;  and  though  they  claim  to  be 
the  Christians,  in  an  exclusive  sense  (they  did  at  that 
time,  but  think  they  have  given  it  up),  they  are  in  fact 
anti-Christian. 

The  Pope  is  the  anti-Christ  of  prophecy.  All  of  his 
priests  are  subordinate  anti-Christs.  I  am  sorry  I  have 
to  give  the  Campbellite  preachers  a  place  in  that  dark 
phalanx.  Precisely  like  the  Roman  Catholic  priests, 
they  take  the  great  work  of  saving  the  sinner  out  of  the 
hands  of  God  into  their  own,  telling  him  to  confess  and 
believe,  let  them  immerse  him  in  water  and — he  is  saved. 
In  this  their  proselytic  zeal  constantly  reminds  me  of  the 
Pharisees  in  our  Savior's  time,  who  compassed  sea  and 
land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and  when  done  made  him 
twofold  more  the  child  of  Hell  than  before.  Why? 
Because  he  still  retained  his  old  sins,  and  added  to  it  the 
sin  of  hypocrisy,  thus  doubling  the  condemnation  and 
the  certainty  of  damnation.  The  meaning  of  hypocrite 
is  a  counterfeit  Christian,  who  has  the  form  and  denies 
the  power,  and  Paul  says  to  turn  away  from  all  such.  (2 
Tim.  3:5.) 

Really  the  normal  work  of  the  Campbellites  is  to  make 
hypocrites,  i.  e.,  give  them  the  form  and  the  name,  in 
the  utter  absence  of  the  reality,  which  they  ignore  and 
do  not  even  claim  to  have.    They  claim  to  be  Christians, 


170  Autobiography   of 

on  the  presumption  that  the  form  they  have  passed 
through  makes  them  such,  which  is  utterly  untrue.  As 
Jesus  says  (Matt.  23:13),  they  only  proselyte  him  to 
their  church  and  do  not  save  his  soul.  Therefore  he  is 
twofold  more  the  child  of  Hell,  having  added  to  his 
old  life  of  sin  the  new  life  of  hypocrisy,  thus  doubling 
the  mess  for  the  bottomless  pif. 

As  their  system,  all  the  way  through,  is  dead,  empty 
legalism,  therefore  after  they  have  received  their  pseudo- 
conversion  and  become  Christians  in  their  nomenclature, 
they  bring  in  the  law,  by  which  they  are  to  live  and  re- 
tain their  place  in  the  kingdom)  which  of  course  is  far- 
cical, as  they  are  farther  from  the  kingdom  of  God  than 
ever  before.  Now  that  they  are  citizens  of  the  kingdom, 
they  tell  them  they  are  to  pray  for  the  pardon  of  the  sins 
which  they  have  committed  since  they  were  immersed, 
but  never  ask  God  to  forgive  the  millions  of  sins  they 
committed  before  their  immersion.  They  ridicule  the 
very  idea  of  holiness,  rejecting  and  denying  the  personal 
Holy  Ghost,  claiming  that  the  Word  is  the  Spirit.  Here 
you  see  again  their  anti-Christian  attitude,  i.  e.,  the  very 
opposite  of  their  boasted  claim  to  being  the  Christian 
Church  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  Anti  means  in- 
stead of;  therefore  the  Pope  is  anti-Christ,  because  he 
usurps  the  place  of  Christ  on  the  earth.  The  Campbellite 
preacher  does  precisely  the  same  thing.  He  repudiates 
the  Holy  Ghost,  who  is  the  only  Divine  personality  on 
the  earth;  that  of  the  Father,  sitting  on  the  throne  of 
the  universe,  and  that  of  the  Son,  on  the  mediatorial 
throne  at  His  right  hand ;  while  both  the  Father  and  the 
Son  send  down  the  Holy  Ghost  to  "convict  the  world  of 
sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment." 

So  you  see  at  once  the  plausibility  and  feasibility  of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  171 

their  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  i.  e.,  His  blasphemy, 
which  means  His  contemptuous  treatment,  by  which  He 
is  rejected,  grieved,  and  alienated  forever,  leaving  the 
sinner  doomed,  even  before  he  evacuates  this  body  and 
passes  out  into  eternity. 

"There  is  a  time,  we  know  not  when ; 
A  point,  we  know  not  where; 
Which  marks  the  destinies  of  men 
For  glory  or  despair. 

"There  is  a  line,  by  us  unseen, 

That  crosses  every  path ; 
The  hidden  boundary  between 
God's  mercy  and  His  wrath." 

Satan  is  so  adroit  that  he  employs  millions  of  false 
prophets,  i.  e.,  counterfeit  preachers,  to  decoy  poor  souls 
beyond  that  enchanted  time  and  across  that  fatal  line, 
the  dismal  bourne  whence  no  traveler  returns.  As  anti- 
Christ  means  the  person  who  takes  the  place  of  Christ 
in  the  plan  of  salvation,  there  is  actually  no  evasion  of 
the  conclusion  that  the  Campbellite  preacher  is  anti- 
Christ.  While  God's  preacher  hides  behind  the  cross, 
and  cries,  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  ivorld,"  the  Campbellite  preacher  says, 
"See,  here  is  water ;  come,  and  let  me  baptize  you  for 
the  remission  of  your  sins."  He  really  with  his  church 
rites  gets  between  the  sinner  and  Christ  and  substitutes 
church  ordinances  for  Him  who  alone  can  save.  He 
ridicules  the  idea  that  you  can  personally  receive  Jesus 
and  receive  an  intelligent  know-so  salvation,  witnessed 
to  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  true  preacher  sinks  out  of  sight;  having  done  all 
he  can  to  lead  the  soul  to  the  Savior,  he  then  tells  him 
he  must  go  alone  and  meet  Him  for  himself  and  receive 
his  own  salvation,  which  he  will  know  better  than  he 


172  Autobiography   o? 

knows  that  he  is  alive.  All  this  the  Campbellite  preacher 
mocks.  Why?  Because  he  is  really  doing  the  work  of 
anti-Christ.  Therefore  he  does  his  best  by  his  preaching 
to  convince  the  sinner  that  he  cannot  get  to  Christ,  meet 
Him  and  receive  his  salvation.  This  is  an  undeniable 
fact,  since  he  actually  tells  him  he  has  no  right  to  pray, 
whereas  prayer  is  the  only  possible  method  of  access  to 
the  Savior.  Hence  you  see  this  poor,  mistaken  man 
actually  heads  the  sinner  off  and  paralyzes  all  of  his 
efforts  to  get  to  Christ,  by  telling  him  that  he  has  no 
right  to  pray,  and  if  he  does  God  will  not  hear  him. 
At  the  same  time  he  pleads  with  him  with  all  his  might 
to  come  and  join  the  church  and  let  him  immerse  him 
in  water  for  the  remission  of  his  sins,  which  is  farcical 
and  blasphemous.  Jesus  alone  has  the  power  to  save  a 
soul  (Acts  4:  12).  Our  work  is  nothing  but  to  tell  the 
poor  lost  sinners  about  Him,  and  to  do  our  utmost  by 
our  prayers  and  instructions  to  encourage  them  in  their 
seeking  after  Him.  This  has  always  been  the  only  way 
of  salvation.  God  says  through  His  own  prophet :  "Let 
the  wicked  man  forsake  his  zvay,  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts;  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  zvho 
will  have  mercy  on  him,  and  to  our  God,  zvho  will  abund- 
antly pardon."  There  never  from  the  beginning  has  been 
any  other  way  of  salvation  but  for  a  man  to  seek  and 
find  the  Lord  for  himself  and  get  truly,  knowingly,  and 
intelligently  saved,  which  God  always  attests  by  His 
Holy  Spirit  so  that  we  know  it  is  better  than  anything 
else.  God  is  the  greatest  of  all  teachers.  When  men 
teach  us  an  important  truth,  we  know  it;  but  when  God 
teaches  us,  we  know  infinitely  better  than  anything  that 
man  can  possibly  teach  us. 

When  they  get  people  utterly  alienated  from  the  in- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  173 

fluence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  there  is  no  longer  any  prob- 
ability of  their  finding  Jesus  their  Savior,  as  the  Holy 
Ghost  alone  can  reveal  Him.  Consequently  in  every 
protracted  meeting  they  would  begin  by  preaching 
against  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  tantalizing  and 
mocking  frequently  in  order  to  stir  up  the  risibles  of  the 
people  and  expedite  their  utter  alienation  from  the  Holy 
Spirit.  After  they  thought  they  had  convinced  them 
that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  Holy  Ghost  religion, 
that  it  was  all  wild-fire  and  fanaticsm,  then,  changing 
their  tactics,  they  would  preach  on  sin  and  Hell,  not 
holding  up  Jesus  and  His  precious  blood  as  the  remedy, 
but  obedience  and  especially  church  joining,  confession 
and  immersion.  They  would  often  speak  very  patheti- 
cally of  the  Savior's  dying  love,  which  was  much  to  our 
edification,  but  all  of  that  dying  love  is  of  no  avail  to 
the  sinner  unless  he  can  find  Him  and  get  Him  to  save 
him.  This  he  can  never  do  unless  the  Holy  Ghost  has  re- 
vealed Him;  on  this  the  Word  is  clear  and  explicit.  "No 
one  can  say  that  Jesus  is  Lord  but  by  the  Ho'ly  Ghost." 
Therefore  when  they  ridicule,  and  with  sarcasm,  witti- 
cism, burlesque  and  vociferous  speeches  have  convinced 
the  people  that  there  is  no  Holy  Ghost  nor  experimental 
religion,  do  you  not  see  that  they  have  already  effectu- 
ally headed  them  off  from  Jesus,  whom  none  but  the 
Holy  Ghost  can  reveal?  Oh,  that  those  preachers  could 
only  be  converted  to  God,  so  they  would  fly  from  the 
office  of  anti-Christ,  as  from  the  mouth  of  Hell,  and  take 
their  places  where  they  are  so  much  needed  as  the 
preachers  of  our  glorious  Savior  who  is  mighty  to  save. 
The  human  heart  spontaneously  bows  in  reverential 
awe  to  everything  in  all  the  universe  on  which  its  salva- 
tion from  sin,   death  and   Hell   depends.     I   have  con- 


174  Autobiography    o? 

versed  with  many  heathen  bowing  before  their  idols. 
They  all  denied  that  they  were  worshipping  them ;  but 
said  that  they  had  them  because  they  reminded  them  of 
God.  As  the  holiness  people  are  from  all  churches,  sects 
and  nationalities,  therefore  we  have  a  constant  fight  to 
keep  them  out  of  the  different  initial  phases  of  idolatry, 
always  more  or  less  prevalent  in  Christian  nations.  See 
where  Catholicism  has  gone  so  deep  into  idolatry  that  it 
is  hard  to  tell  whether  their  condition  is  any  more  hope- 
ful than  that  of  the  heathen.  They  actually  seem  to  have 
lost  a  personal  knowledge  of  God. 

Sanctification  gloriously  delivers  every  soul  from  idol- 
atry in  all  of  its  forms  and  phases.  Hezekiah  was  a 
great  leader  of  the  most  prevalent  Holiness  Movement 
which  had  been  known  in  the  Jewish  Church.  He  trav- 
elled all  over  the  country  destroying  idols  everywhere 
and  doing  his  best  to  exterminate  idol  worship  out  of  the 
land.  Yet  his  only  son,  Manasseh,  who  succeeded  him 
on  the  throne  and  reigned  fifty-three  years,  went  into 
idolatry  and  even  had  idols  put  into  the  holy  temple  and 
worshipped  there.  God  permitted  the  king  of  Babylon 
to  take  him  away  captive.  There  he  suffered  awful  hor- 
rors, as  they  made  a,  specialty  of  punishing  him  in  a 
most  unmerciful  manner.  But  these  terrible  sufferings 
brought  him  to  repentance,  so  that  he  got  down  low, 
humbling  himself  before  God  and  crying  for  His  mercy 
till  He  heard  him  and  delivered  him  out  of  his  captivity, 
sent  him  back  to  Jerusalem  and  restored  to  him  his 
kingdom.  After  this  Manasseh  did  his  best  to  reform 
the  nation  from  idolatry,  but  could  not. 

The  last  great  Holiness  Movement  in  the  Jewish 
Church  was  by  Josiah.  He  went  down  to  the  bottom 
of  things  and  did  his  best  to  exterminate  idolatry  out 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  a.  M.  175 

of  the  nation,  travelling  extensively  and  everywhere  de- 
stroying the  idols.  The  shrine  of  Moloch  had  stood  in 
the  valley  of  Hinnom,  west  of  Jerusalem,  ever  since  the 
days  of  Solomon.  He  utterly  exterminated  it  and  every- 
thing pertaining  to  idol  worship.  After  all  of  his  faith- 
ful efforts  to  purify  the  land  from  idolatry,  when  he 
passed  away  to  his  heavenly  home  the  people  soon  began 
to  drift  back  into  the  different  forms  of  idol  worship. 

You  have  observed  all  of  your  life  that  when  people 
want  a  revival,  they  have  to  take  their  eyes  off  of  all 
their  ordinances  and  lay  down  their  churchisms  and  all 
of  their  controversies  and  get  on  their  faces  before  God. 
When  they  go  back  to  their  churchisms  they  grieve  the 
Spirit,  and  the  revival  evanesces.  The  Holiness  Move- 
ment is  God's  revival  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world. 
He  has  brought  us  together  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
that  we  may  unite  our  hearts  and  hands  and,  losing 
sight  of  the  various  phases  of  those  churchisms  in  which 
we  were  born,  dropping  the  curtain  over  the  dark,  un- 
satisfactory past  and  leaving  it  with  all  of  its  wrecks, 
disappointments,  difficulties  and  failures,  march  out 
under  the  blood-stained  banner  for  the  salvation  of  the 
world. 

While  we  follow  the  blood-stained  banner,  we  fight 
under  the  flag  which  means  no  compromise  with  sin  or 
error.  In  that  we  are  utterly  free  from  all  partisan 
alliances,  legalisms  and  creedisms  of  every  form  and 
phase.  We  have  forever  closed  our  eyes  to  everything 
but  God  and  His  Wrord.  In  this  exterminating  war  with 
sin  and  Satan  we  have  no  fight  with  churches.  God  has 
laid  them  all  on  our  hearts,  and  we  feel,  like  Paul,  that 
we  are  truly  indebted  to  all.  We  love  all  of  the  churches 
with  a  perfect  love,  which  prepares  us  for  martyrdom. 


176  Autobiography   op 

This  unutterable  love  constrains  us  to  tell  the  whole 
truth,  however  unsavory  it  may  be  to  their  perverted 
olfactories.  Medical  science  reveals  that  the  most  pow- 
erful remedies  and  most  indispensable  in  therapeutics 
ire  invariably  the  most  nauseous  to  the  patient.  Pala- 
table medicines  are  not  generally  worth  administering, 
lleb.  4:  12  tells  us,  "The  Word  of  God  is  a  tivo-edged 
sword."  If  we  have  the  courage  heroically  to  hug  the 
salvation  edge,  it  will  quickly  cut  out  of  us  everything 
we  cannot  take  to  Heaven  with  us.  If  we  shrink  from 
the  salvation  edge,  we  are  bound  to  meet  the  damnation 
edge,  which  will  cut  out  forever  all  of  our  hopes  of 
Heaven.  If  we  will  not  take  the  precious  promises  in 
the  Bible,  which  superabound  like  a  rolling  ocean  with- 
out bank  or  bottom,  we  are  destined  to  take  the  awful 
judgments  pronounced  in  that  volume  of  infallible  truth. 

Well  has  man  been  denominated  by  philosophers  "the 
religious  animal."  When  I  traveled  around  the  world  I 
saw  that  the  poor  heathen  were  quite  as  religious  as  the 
Christians ;  but  the  trouble  is  there  is  no  Savior  from 
sin  in  all  their  religion.  Their  idols  stand  between  them 
and  God,  so  that  they  stop  short  of  Him  "who  is  mighty 
to  save  and  strong  to  deliver."  In  Christian  lands,  the 
water  god  is  the  most  prominent;  the  same  is  true  in 
heathen  lands.  They  throng  their  holy  rivers  by  the 
millions  and  plunge  beneath  the  limpid  wave  to  get  rid 
of  their  sins,  in  their  heathen  blindness  doing  just  what 
myriads  are  doing  amid  the  glorious  light  of  Christian 
civilization,  showing  thereby  the  universal  trend  toward 
idolatry. 

Shall  we  not  put  away  every  god  but  Jesus?  When  we 
have  Him,  we  have  the  heavenly  Trinity,  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost.     Col.  2 :  9,  "In    Him    dwell 'eth    all    the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  177 

fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  You  are  complete  in 
Him,  who  is  the  head  of  all  government  and  authority. 
Therefore  you  see  plainly  that  when  you  have  Him  en- 
throned, crowned  and  sceptered,  reigning  in  your  heart 
and  life  without  a  rival,  then  you  have  the  glorious 
heavenly  Trinity,  and  everything  else  appertaining  to  life 
and  godliness.  Hence  the  pertinency  of  the  unceasing 
battle-cry,  "Jesus  only."  The  truth  is,  the  very  fact  that 
you  are  running  after  other  things  is  prima  facie  evi- 
dence that  you  do  not  have  Him  enthroned  in  your  heart. 
He  makes  the  life  a  cloudless  sunshine,  and  so  satisfies 
the  longings  of  the  immortal  soul  that  you  rest  in  per- 
fect peace,  having  the  full  satiety  of  your  hitherto  in- 
satiable spirit.  If  Jesus  had  been  enthroned  in  my  heart, 
I  never  would  have  constrained  that  Methodist  preacher 
to  immerse  me  in  water,  because  I  would  have  been  per- 
fectly satisfied  already. 

In  writing  my  biography  I  have  already  given  you 
quite  a  history  of  my  debates  with  the  Campbellites, 
which  covered  a  space  of  ten  years,  during  the  very 
flower  of  my  young  manhood.  Some  who,  in  the  Provi- 
dence of  God,  may  read  this  may  conclude  that  I  have  a 
retaliatory  spirit;  in  this  I  have  the  consolation  that  they 
are  mistaken.  I  know  that  I  love  all  the  people  whom  I 
have  met  on  the  controversial  floor  with  the  perfect  love 
which  prepares  me  to  die  for  them.  Of  this,  God  is  my 
judge.  If  He  needs  my  martyrdom  to  save  others,  to 
establish  His  truth,  and  to  glorify  His  great  name,  I  re- 
spond with  shouts  of  victory.  I  am  like  the  Baptist  mis- 
sionary motto,  which  exhibits  an  ox  standing  between 
the  altar  and  the  plow,  "Ready  for  service  or  sacrifice." 
I  have  no  creed  to  serve,  and  no  dogma  to  defend.     I 


178  Autobiography   of 

have  lost  sight  of  everything  but  God  and  His  precious 
truth,  by  which  alone  sinners  can  be  saved. 

Hezekiah,  while  destroying  idols  on  all  sides,  exter- 
minated the  brazen  serpent,  because  the  people  would 
burn  incense  to  it,  i.  e.,  worship  it.  That  was  idolatry. 
That  brazen  serpent  was  certainly  an  exceedingly  prec- 
ious memento  of  a  glorious  deliverance  which  had  taken 
place  hundreds  of  years  before;  and  that  godly  king  so 
realized  its  consolation  as  a  souvenir  of  a  glorious, 
merciful  intervention,  yet  when  the  people  would  wor- 
ship it,  he  utterly  destroyed  it,  grinding  it  into  powder, 
and  throwing  it  into  the  brook  Kedron. 

George  Fox,  the  paragon  saint  of  the  Friend's  relig- 
ion, had  no  objection  to  the  ordinances  per  se ;  he  appre- 
ciated them  as  precious  mementoes  of  redeeming  mercy 
and  saving  grace,  yet  he  eliminated  them  altogether  and 
declined  to  administer  them,  because  he  saw  the  people 
on  all  sides  looking  to  them  for  salvation. 

I  would  a  thousand  times  rather  take  the  place  of  a 
dry-land  Quaker  than  a  water-log  Campbellite.  When 
timber  gets  water-logged  it  always  sinks  to  the  bottom 
of  the  rivers,  where  it  rots  and  is  lost  forever.  When 
Christians  get  water-logged,  if  they  abide  in  that  condi- 
tion, they  will  not  only  forfeit  all  the  saving  grace  they 
ever  had,  but  sink  to  the  bottom  of  Hell.  Good  Lord, 
help  us  to  beware  of  hydrolatry ! 

I  have  not  yet  written  anything  about  the  mode  of 
baptism,  for  all  that  you  have  seen  is  on  the  design. 
There  is  where  we  meet  the  tug  of  war.  If  you  take  it 
like  the  Campbellite*  and  the  Mormons,  as  an  indispen- 
sable condition  of  salvation,  you  become  an  idolater  and 
are  in  awful  danger  of  losing  your  soul,  world  without 
end.      This    arises    from    the    fact   that    our    Savior    is 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  179 

omnipotent  and  needs  no  help  to  save  your  soul  or  mine. 
Therefore  when  you  take  in  a  Campbellite  preacher,  or 
Mormon  prophet,  or  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  to  help 
Him,  you  offer  Him  a  downright  insult;  consequently 
He  leaves  the  preacher  and  the  water  god  to  serve  you. 
God  only  saves  people  when  they  utterly  abandon  the 
water  god  and  every  other  idol  and  say  to  the  preachers, 
"Stand  back  and  let  me  go  and  meet  the  Lord !"  Even 
Mohammed,  the  Arabian  false  prophet,  in  his  Koran 
when  he  tells  about  going  with  the  angel  Gabriel  up  to 
Heaven,  to  stand  before  God  and  receive  his  commis- 
si'n,  said  that  when  they  had  finally  reached  the  sixth 
heaven,  Gabriel  asked  to  be  excused,  telling  him  he 
could  escort  him  no  farther  on  his  way  to  God;  that  he 
would  find  Him  on  the  throne  of  the  universe  in  the 
seventh  heaven  at  quite  a  distance.  Therefore  he  must 
go  on  alone  and  stand  before  the  effulgent  throne  of 
the  great  God  of  the  universe,  hear  His  message  and 
receive  his  commission. 

I  was  a  chronic  mourner  all  my  life,  but  never  got  sal- 
vation till  I  was  sixteen  years  old.  T  was  in  the  midst 
of  a  glorious  revival  among  the  Baptists,  all  of  the 
Methodists  in  that  country  having  united  with  them  in 
a  glorious  revival  effort.  Finally,  when  I  found  the 
Lord  and  He  saved  my  soul,  I  was  in  the  woods  alone, 
prostrate  on  the  ground  and  crying  for  mercy,  my  sins 
like  a  mountain  crushing  me  down  to  Hell.  When  I 
reached  the  point  of  utter  desperation  and  gave  up  my 
preaching  father,  shouting  Methodist  mother,  all  the 
good  church  members,  my  own  irreproachable  moral 
character,  which  Satan  had  manipulated  into  a  mountain 
of  self-righteousness  with  which  he  had  covered  me  and 
was  pulling  me  into  Hell,  and   absolutely  realized  that 


180  Autobiography    of 

none  of  these  could  help  me  and  I  deserved  nothing  but 
a  place  in  Hell,  and  said:  "O  Lord,  just  send  me  there; 
I  now  confess  judgment  against  my  own  soul,"  then  the 
darkness  which  had  wrapped  me  in  Satan's  midnight 
sped  away  and  the  glorious  Sun  of  righteousness  did 
rise  in  my  soul  with  healing  in  His  wings.  I  had  been 
down  in  a  deep  valley  alone  amid  the  forests,  crying  from 
the  depths  of  my  hopeless  soul.  I  found  myself  on  the 
top  of  the  highest  hill,  leaping  for  joy.  A  new  world 
had  burst  on  me  and  everything  looked  so  beautiful  that 
language  is  utterly  impoverished  to  this  day  in  an  at- 
tempt to  describe  the  rapture  of  my  spirit.  I  could  but 
sing: 

"Oh,  how  happy  are  they,  who  their  Savior  obey ; 

And  have  laid  up  their  treasures  above. 
Torigue  cannot  express  the  sweet  comfort  and  peace 
Of  a  soul  in  its  earliest  love. 

"That  sweet  comfort  was  mine,  when  the  favor  Divine 
I  first  found  in  the  life-giving  blood ; 
Of  my  Savior  possessed,  I  was  perfectly  blessed, 
As  if  filled  with  the  fullness  of  God. 

"My  soul  mounted  higher,  in  a  chariot  of  fire, 
Nor  did  envy  Elijah  his  seat; 
I  rode  on  the  sky,  freely  justified  I, 
And  the  moon  it  was  under  my  feet. 

"Jesus  all  the  day  long,  was  my  joy  and  my  song ; 

Oh,  that  all  His  salvation' might  see! 
He  has  saved  me,  I  cried,  He  has  suffered  and  died, 
To  redeem  a  poor  sinner  like  me." 

Interview  God's  faithful  pilgrims  in  every  land  and 
clime,  and  they  have  one  and  the  same  testimony,  and 
tell  you  with  exceptional  unanimity,  that  they  never  did 
find  the  Lord  till  they  had  given  up  all  human  resources. 
Our  work  in  leading  souls  to  the  Savior  does  not  con- 
sist in  gathering  around  them  transitory  consolations, 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  181 

personal,  legalistic,  or  ritualistic,  but  in  knocking  them 
all  away,  so  as  to  leave  the  seeker  alone  with  God.  Spir- 
itual people  are  infinitely  valuable  in  the  way  of  instruc- 
tion and  prayer,  but  when  we  have  done  all  in  our  power, 
we  must  leave  the  soul  alone  to  go  to  God  and  settle  the 
matter  for  eternity.  The  dogma  of  baptismal  regener- 
ation actually  substitutes  the  preachers  and  the  ordin- 
ances for  the  Savior,  which  simply  means  wholesale 
damnation. 

In  my  deliverances  hitherto  on  the  design  of  baptism 
and  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  prayer,  I  have  dealt 
candidly  with  souls ;  shown  neither  distinction  nor  mercy 
to  the  people  who  incur  the  awful  responsibility  in  stand- 
ing between  the  living  and  the  dead.  To  extend  clerical 
and  ecclesiastical  courtesy  in  a  crisis  of  this  kind  would 
simply  be  not  merely  homocide,  but  murder  in  the  first 
degree.  I  am  glad  God  gave  me  grace  to  declare  His 
whole  counsel,  "Cry  aloud  and  spare  not"  when  I  was 
in  that  country  where  I  was  born  and  reared,  and  where 
my  dear  father  before  me  heroically  preached  the  truth 
which  will  judge  us  all  in  the  last  day. 

As  a  matter  of  fidelity  and  veracity  in  the  run  of  my 
biography,  I  must  make  a  little  allusion  to  the  mode  of 
baptism.  If  you  can  do  so,  steer  clear  of  that  dangerous 
heresy,  hydrolatry,  which  is  a  form  of  idolatry  so  sub- 
tle and  capricious  that,  like  a  weasel,  it  will  creep  in  on 
you  before  you  are  aware.  If  you  are  actually  lost  in 
Jesus  and  can  stay  there,  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  the 
water  god,  nor  any  other ;  but  rest  assured,  hydrolatry 
will  settle  on  you  like  a  nightmare  and  you  will  never 
know  it  till  the  paralysis  has  carried  you  beyond  recov- 
ery. I  made  a  narrow  escape  from  its  grab  at  me ;  when 
I  took  immersion  to  sanctify  me  and  it  utterly  failed,  I 


iSj  Autobiography    o? 

was  enabled  to  pass  the  water  line  forever.  Then  I 
sought  for  nineteen  years  in  my  blind  way  without  a 
teacher,  and  God,  in  His  great  mercy,  gave  me  the  grand 
desideratum,  for  which  my  soul  had  so  long  been  sigh- 
ing and  crying.  After  I  had  passed  the  water  line,  I 
wandered  over  mountain  and  vale,  through  valley  and 
plain,  everywhere  crying  out  for  holiness ;  desiring  purity 
of  heart  more  than  anything  else  in  the  universe. 

Dry  land  Quakerism  is  one  extreme  and  triune  immer- 
sion the  other.  You  are  all  right  in  either  attitude,  or 
anywhere  between,  if  you  have  an  experience  of  New 
Testament  salvation  which  means  that  you  are  radically 
emptied  of  sin,  and  copiously  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost; 
lost  in  Jesus,  desiring  nothing  but  God,  and  daily  sink- 
ing deeper  into  His  glorious  Divinity.  In  that  attitude 
the  triune  immersion,  Doweyism,  ritualistic  Quakerism, 
and  the  whole  procession  of  intermediate  saints,  march 
up  the  King's  highway  in  perfect  harmony.  But  the 
moment  the  water  god  gets  in,  he  begins  to  rival  Jesus, 
and  proposes  to  divide  the  glory  with  Him ;  which  means 
confusion,  apostasy,  and  damnation.  Our  wonderful, 
omnipotent  Jesus  needs  neither  the  help  of  the  water  god, 
the  Campbellite  preacher,  Mormon  prophet,  nor  Roman 
Catholic  priest.  When  Jesus  reigns  in  your  heart  and 
life  without  a  rival,  you  have  the  everlasting  victory 
over  popery,  prelacy,  priestcraft,  doubt,  and  the  devil. 
While  I  have  no  interest  whatever  in  the  mode  of  bap- 
tism, I  do  have  the  greatest  interest  in  your  soul  and 
must  warn  you  against  the  slightest  encroachment  of 
hydrolatry. 

God,  in  His  good  providence,  gave  me  a  classical  edu- 
cation.    I  became  a  good  reader  when  I  was  six  years 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  183 

old,  and  never  took  time  to  sow  wild  oats,  nor  run  after 
the  devil.  I  have  been  a  student  all  of  my  life.  For 
the  glory  of  God  I  have  ransacked  the  vocabulary  of 
all  ages  and  nations  for  light  and  information  on  this 
controversy  which  divides  the  Lord's  people.  God  has 
permitted  me  three  times  to  travel  in  the  Holy  Land — 
in  1895,  1899,  1905.  With  the  honesty  of  a  Judgment- 
bound  pilgrim  I  have  examined  everything  calculated 
to  throw  light  on  this  subject,  and  thus  corroborate  the 
precious  Word.  Therefore  I  give  you  the  benefit  of  my 
life-long  study  and  extensive  travel ;  asking  God  in  His 
condescending  mercy  to  make  me  the  humble  instrument 
in  helping  you  to  study  His  wonderful  revelation.  If 
you  are  not  saved  from  all  prejudice,  you  had  better  get 
down  before  God  and  stay  on  your  knees  till  He  gives 
you  a  clean  heart,  as  the  slightest  prejudice  will  blind 
your  eyes  to  the  truth  and  may  do  you  incalculable 
damage.  I  do  believe  without  a  doubt  that  you  will 
receive  my  testimony  as  a  candid  and  truthful  witness 
to  what  I  have  seen,  and  you  may  go  and  see  for  your- 
self. 

As  to  the  Word  of  the  Lord,  I  shall  not  give  you  an 
opinion.  When  I  was  preaching  in  Philadelphia,  a 
brother  came  to  me  and  said  he  wanted  my  Com- 
mentaries on  the  Scriptures  and  proceeded  to  observe 
that  he  supposed  that  they  were  my  opinions,  and  g^ive 
that  as  a  reason  why  he  wanted  them,  because  he  de- 
sired to  know  my  opinion  about  the  Bible.  I  said, 
"Brother,  if  that  is  what  you  want,  you  need  not  get 
them,  because  they  do  not  contain  my  opinions,  but  the 
Word  of  the  Lord ;  Scripture  explaining  Scripture.  The 
Bible  is  God's  dictionary  and  explains  itself."     I  notifv 


184  Autobiography   0? 

you  now  that  I  have  neither  time  nor  space  in  my  biog- 
raphy for  my  opinions,  creed,  theology,  Church  rites, 
etc.  Therefore  on  the  mode  of  baptism,  watch  me  close- 
ly and  see  that  I  give  you  the  Word  of  the  Lord. 

I  have  used  for  the  last  thirty  years  nothing  but  the 
Greek,  which  our  Savior  and  His  apostles  spoke  and 
wrote,  and  which  was  the  learned  language  of  the  world 
during  those  days.  Constrained  by  the  Lord's  dear  peo- 
ple, you  know  I  have  translated  it  so  you  can  see  it  for 
yourself,  free  from  the  errors  which  had  inadvertently 
crept  in  during  the  ages  of  transcription  which  preceded 
the  art  of  printing.  As  this  is  my  last  will  and  testimony, 
of  course  I  am  overly  anxious  to  sacrifice  everything 
for  the  truth,  desiring  nothing  else. 

When  God  sanctified  me,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  the 
people  everywhere  I  preached,  the  altar  was  crowded 
with  seekers  and  the  power  was  there  gloriously  manifest 
in  conviction,  conversions,  and  sanctification  ;  of  course 
I  had  to  expose  the  silly  sophistries  of  baptismal  regen- 
eration, in  order  to  convict  the  people  so  that  they  would 
seek  the  Lord  and  get  saved.  For  more  than  a  gen- 
eration the  Campbellites  had  rolled  their  belligerent  tide 
over  that  country,  claiming  to  be  the  only  true  Christian 
people  and  anathematizing  all  others  and  consigning  them 
to  Hell  if  they  were  not  immersed  for  the  remission  oc 
their  sins ;  meanwhile  it  seemed  that  they  would  take 
everybody  into  their  Church.  The  Methodist  preachers 
had  to  yield  to  that  perpetual  war  with  constant  chal- 
lenges, so  that  they  had  generally  given  up  the  altar,  and 
merely  took  in  members  as  seekers  and  made  no  public 
effort  to  get  them  saved.  Consequently  I  found  the 
great   majority   of    Methodists    only    in    the   attitude    of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  185 

seekers,  never  having  been  converted.  When  the  Lord 
filled  me  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  making  me  a  cyclone  of 
fire,  my  preaching  stirred  everything,  raising  the  multi- 
tudes on  tiptoe,  and  filling  all  houses  till  standing  room 
was  at  a  premium,  and  of  course  stirring  Diabolus  with 
his  myrmidons  till  they  raced  from  the  bottomless  pit 
to  hold  their  people,  whom  the  Lord,  through  my  hum- 
ble instrumentality,  was  taking  out  of  the  way.  Multi- 
tudes of  Campbellites  were  stricken  down  with  convic- 
tion and  crowded  the  altars ;  old  and  young,  great  and 
small,  leading  members  rank  and  file,  and  all  sorts  got 
gloriously  converted.  The  Lord,  as  a  normal  conse- 
quence of  the  blessed  work  He  had  done  for  them,  in- 
variably led  them  out  of  that  Church  into  the  Methodist 
or  the  Baptist. 

Eternity  alone  will  reveal  the  good  that  was  done  in 
that  ten  years'  war,  the  very  length  of  time  the  Greeks 
besieged  old  Troy  before  she  fell  a  prey  into  their 
hands.  I  was  not  alone  as  a  contestant  with  them 
during  those  stormy  times.  Doctors  Ditzler,  Miller, 
Hiner  and  Fitch  heroically  met  them  on  the  gory  field, 
and  the  results  were  exceedingly  fruitful  in  the  kingdom 
of  God. 

During  the  war  we  had  a  glorious  opportunity  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  thousands  who  had  never  heard  any- 
thing but  that  pseudo-water  theology  which  had  not  a 
scintilla  of  salvation  in  it,  and  never  did  bring  anybody 
within  a  million  miles  of  salvation.  An  eight  day's  debate 
invariably  wound  up  with  a  great  spiritual  awakening 
And  revival  of  Scriptural  regeneration  and  sanctification. 
As  the  days  rolled  by  the  Spirit  would  rest  on  the  peo- 
ple  in   constantly  increasing  potency,   illuminating,  con- 


1 86  Autobiography   op 

victing,  and  reviving,  till  shouts  would  ring  out,  remind- 
ing  me  of  a  camp-meeting.  Methodists,  Baptists  and 
Presbyterians,  and  other  people  who  believed  in  Holy 
Ghost  religion,  would  get  wonderfully  revived.  The 
colored  people  were  then  in  slavery  and  had  no  learn- 
ing, but  many  of  them  who  had  salvation  would  gather 
around  within  hearing  distance.  These  colored  people 
who,  as  a  race,  are  harder  to  gull  with  the  devil's 
sophistry  and  to  satisfy  with  the  dead  form  without  the 
power  than  white  people,  were  literally  filled  and  elec- 
trified with  the  Holy  Ghost  preaching.  Meanwhole  con- 
viction like  a  nightmare  from  the  eternal  world  would 
settle  down  on  the  Campbellites,  whose  faces  looked  as 
long  as  my  arm  and  blue  as  indigo,  and  I  know  the 
blessed  Holy  Spirit  gave  them  an  awakening  which  they 
never  have  forgotten.  Thus  we  had  glorious  consolation 
of  spiritual  fruits  while  the  debates  were  in  progress. 

After  the  debates  were  over  it  seemed  as  if  we  had 
had  a  revival  in  the  great  community  who  had  thronged 
to  hear  them.  They  served  as  awakeners  of  the  people, 
stirring  them  up  to  study  their  Bibles  as  never  before  and 
to  read  good  books  and  seek  a  closer  walk  with  God. 
Many  of  them  took  place  in  my  district.  When  I  was 
presiding  elder  over  twenty  counties  and  during  the  four 
years  of  my  eldership,  I  constantly  saw  the  cheering 
fruitage  of  those  discussions.  They  gave  me  and  all 
others  the  liberty  we  needed  freely  and  fearlessly  to 
"preach  the  Gospel  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  doivn  from 
Heaven."     i  Peter  1:12. 

If  you  could  go  into  that  country  you  would  see  the 
fruit  of  those  debates  among  the  churches  in  peace  and 
harmony.     Before  the  war  you  could  not  preach  straight 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  187 

Holy  Ghost  religion,  as  God  requires  all  whom  He  has 
<alled  to  do,  without  an  assault  hy  a  water-log  preacher. 
Now  you  can  preach  Jesus  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
blessed  Father  and  the  Gospel  dynamite,  sky-blue  re- 
generation and  red  hot  sanctification,  firing  on  their  idols 
indiscriminately  (not  sparing  the  water-god)  and  go 
away  with  your  scalp  on  all  right.  Before  the  war  you 
would  have  been  fired  on  from  every  point  of  the  compass. 

The  Lord  gave  me  the  experience  of  entire  sanctifica- 
tion in  1868,  but  I  stood  much  alone  in  the  great  Sunny 
South  till  the  Holiness  Movement  crossed  the  Ohio  River 
in  1883,  and  swept  Kentucky  like  a  cyclone.  The  most 
of  the  preachers  in  that  Conference  in  the  grand  old  state 
and  myriads  of  members  went  tiding  over  into  Beulah 
Land.  There  you  see  the  grand  harvest  from  the  seed 
heroically  sown  amid  the  thunders  of  battle  and  the 
tempests  of  war. 

We  have  mentioned  the  universal  silence  that  now 
rests,  throughout  that  memorable  battle-ground,  as  a 
delectable  souvenir  of  God's  blessings  in  that  war.  It 
is  a  consolatory  fact  that  the  Campbellites  have  buried 
the  hatchet,  and  of  course  their  antagonists  have  all  done 
the  same,  as  they  are  no  longer  needed  to  protect  the 
armies  while  they  wage  an  exterminating  war  against  sin, 
death  and  Hell.  Kentucky  is  an  Indian  word,  and  means 
"the  dark,  bloody  ground,"  because  there  the  tribes  so 
often  met,  fought,  bled  and  died.  But  we  are  glad  that 
the  ages  of  darkness  and  blood  have  retreated  before 
the  age  of  Christian  civilization.  I  am  glad  that  the  war 
wound  up  nearly  twenty  years  ago  and  that  the  battle- 
field is  still  silent ;  I  hope  that  it  will  ever  so  remain. 

Yet  we  must   freely  and  fearlessly   preach  the  whole 


i88  Autobiography    of 

truth.  Paul  said  he  was  free  from  the  blood  of  all  men 
because  he  had  not  shunned  to  declare  all  the  counsel 
of  God.  On  the  design  of  baptism,  and  the  privilege  of 
the  sinner  to  pray,  I  fought  with  them  for  life,  because 
they  were  vitally  useless,  involving  the  problem  of  sal- 
vation, meaning  Heaven  or  1  fell  for  the  people.  It  is  a 
battle  along  whose  moving  phalanx  fire  flashed  and  blood 
flowed.  N.  B.  Fidelity  and  veracity  require  me  to 
give  you  a  brief  historic  sketch  of  that  feature  of  the 
war  which  appertains  to  the  mode  of  baptism,  where  I 
never  saw  a  spark  of  fire  or  a  drop  of  blood,  but  they 
regard  it  as  really  a  vital  issue.  This  follows  as  a  legiti- 
mate conclusion  from  its  non-essentiality  for  the  salva- 
tion of  souls,  which  we  prove  by  oceans  of  Scripture.  I 
simply  add  one  here  to  the  many  which  have  gone  before, 
i  Cor.  i :  14,  "I  thank  God  that  I  have  baptised  none  of 
you  except  Crispus  and  Gains."  These  two  brethren 
were  the  most  prominent  in  the  Church,  the  former  the 
chief  ruler  in  the  synagogue  and  the  latter  the  best  of 
the  whole  Church,  i.  e.,  throwing  open  wide  his  doors  and 
entertaining  everybody.  Now  you  know  positively  that 
if  water  baptism  was  a  saving  ordinance  Paul  would 
never  have  spoken  of  it  in  that  way,  that  he  thanked  God 
that  he  had  never  baptized  any  of  them  save  those  two. 
You  could  not  get  a  Campbellite  preacher  or  a  Mormon 
prophet  to  save  your  life  to  say  publicly  he  thanked 
God  that  he  did  not  baptize  people.  Why?  Because 
they  believe  that  water  baptism  is  necessary  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins. 

The  very  fact  that  people  don't  talk  like  the  Bible  and 
do  it  with  a  glad  and  free  heart  makes  it  evident  that 
they  are  not  in  harmony  with  it.     It  seems  to  me  that  1 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  189 

am  certainly  the  happiest  old  man  in  the  world.  Why? 
Because  I  shout  over  everything  I  read  in  the  Bible 
without  a  single  exception.  How  do  you  account  for 
that?  Because  the  blessed  Holy  Ghost,  the  third  person 
of  the  Trinity,  who  made  the  Bible,  dwells  in  this  tene- 
ment of  cumbrous  clay  which  I  and  He  will  soon  eva- 
cuate unless  Jesus  comes  to  take  away  His  Bride,  in 
which  case  He  will  transfigure  me  in  the  "twinkling  of 
an  eye,"  1  Cor.  15:51.  I  shall  then  fly  away  to  meet 
the  Lord  in  the  air.  If  you  are  going  up  to  live  in 
Heaven,  you  must  have  heaven  in  your  heart  and  in  your 
life.  You  can  never  do  that  till  you  swallow  the  whole 
Bible  by  faith  alone,  contented  to  digest  it  afterward, 
like  the  goose  swallowing  corn.  Praise  the  Lord,  I  have 
done  that  very  thing.  I  do  not  know  much  about  it,  but, 
glory  to  God,  I  believe  it  all  and  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit 
who  made  it  is  teaching  me  most  wonderfully,  letting 
me  down  deeper  into  God's  glorious  Divinity ;  leading 
me  out  into  broader  latitudes  and  progressively  onward 
into  grander  longitudes ;  permitting  me  to  climb  up 
into  loftier  altitudes,  and  quickening  my  intellect  into 
more  capacious  apprehensions  of  God's  wonderful,  in- 
comprehensible and  immunicable  attributes.  Omnisci- 
ence and  Omnipotence  are  thus  flooding  my  soul  with 
glory  ineffable. 

We  are  past  the  blood  and  fire  era  in  our  discussion 
of  baptism.  The  Holy  Ghost  in  His  mighty  work,  and 
the  glorious  and  the  wonderful  efficacy  of  the  sinner's 
prayer  for  the  pardoning  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  re- 
ceived and  appropriated  by  faith  alone,  as  the  poor  sinner 
is  still  in  bondage  to  the  devil  till  .his  glorious  emanci- 
pation by  the  omnipotent  arm  of  the  wonderful  Christ, 


lyo  Autobiography   op 

who  came  from  Heaven  to  redeem  him  from  sin,  death 
and  Hell,  alone  bring  salvation.  If  the  sinner  does  ever 
so  much  good  work  before  he  gets  out  of  the  devil's 
kingdom  in  answer  to  his  own  prayers,  those  good  works 
would  belong  to  Satan  forever.  If  you  build  a  golden 
house  like  that  of  the  emperor  Nero  on  your  neighbor's 
lot,  you  cannot  hold  it  to  save  your  life ;  the  laws  of 
every  nation  under  heaven  will  turn  it  over  to  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  land.  Therefore  you  see  the  diabolical 
"botch  potch"  of  the  salvation  by  works  with  which 
Campbellite  preachers  gull  and  deceive  poor  sinners ; 
positively  forbidding  them  to  pray  for  God's  pardoning 
mercy  and  telling  them  that  if  they  do  so  He  will  not 
hear  them. 

You  see  all  along  the  lines  of  spirituality  that  we  wade 
through  blood,  amid  flames  of  fire  and  mountains  of  the 
slain.  But  now  as  we  cross  swords  on  the  mere  question 
of  mode,  you  will  see  neither  fire  flash  nor  blood  flow, 
as  it  is  not  in  any  sense  a  vital  issue.  There  is  but  one 
point  to  guard  and  that  is  to  fight  off  all  the  alien  gods. 
If  we  can  keep  them  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  holiness 
people,  and  settle  forever  the  great  problem  of  Christ 
crowned  within,  sceptered  and  enthroned  Lord  of  all 
forever,  reigning  in  the  heart  and  life  without  a  rival, 
the  shout  of  victory  will  never  cease  to  ring  along  the 
embattled  line.  Col.  2:  9,  "In  Him  dwelleth  all  the  fulness 
of  the  Godhead  bodily."  Here  you  see  that  when  you 
have  Jesus  crowned  within  you  really  have  the  glorious 
Trinity,  i.  e.,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  as  the 
latter  is  the  executive  of  the  Trinity  and  the  revelator 
of  Christ,  whose  province  it  is  not  only  to  reveal  to  the 
human  spirit,  but  to  crown  Him  in  the  heart,  glorious 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  191 

and  eternal  Prophet,  Priest  and  King.  Therefoie  if  you 
are  not  true  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  you  will  ne  er  ^o  much 
as  get  acquainted  with  Christ,  who  is  everything  to  the 
Christian. 

"If  you  are  dead  along  with  Christ  from  the  elements 
of  the  zvorld,  why  are  you  subject  to  ordinances  as  living- 
in  the  zvorld?"  Col.  2:20.  In  the  old  dispensation  we 
were  subject  to  ordinances,  because  they  were  necessary 
to  symbolize  Christ  and  His  mighty  works.  But  since 
Christ  has  come  and  has  done  His  work,  wrought  the 
great  vicarious,  substitutionary  atonement,  and  redeemed 
the  whole  world  from  sin,  death,  and  Hell,  we  are  no 
longer  subject  to  ordinances,  as  they  are  in  no  way  es- 
sentially identified  with  the  gracious  economy.  They 
are  mere  souvenirs,  beautiful  in  their  situations;  remind- 
ing us  of  the  mighty  works  already  wrought  by  the  great 
Antitype,  at  whose  coming  all  the  types  and  shadows, 
symbols  and  ordinances,  fled  away.  Therefore  the  truly 
sanctified  are  no  longer  subject  to  them,  but  they  are 
subject  to  us,  as  we  in  Christ  have  the  victory  over  all 
of  those  things  which  put  a  yoke  on  the  neck  of  the 
Hebrew  fathers,  "which  they  were  not  able  to  bear." 
They  broke  down  under  that  burden,  symbolizing  the 
failure  of  the  body  of  Christ  after  that  night  of  toil  and 
suffering  to  bear  His  cross  up  Mount  Calvary.  We  need 
a  thousand  glittering  swords  constantly  unsheathed  to 
fortify  our  holiness  people  against  the  encroachment  of 
alien  gods,  which  have  actually  captured  all  of  the  old 
ecclesiasticisms.  Oh,  how  they  are  crowding  on  all  of 
the  Protestant  Churches! 

A  presiding  elder,  making  a  speech  to  raise  a  princely 
sum   of  money  to  build  a  church  edifice,  with  a  cost 


192  Autobiography    of 

twenty  times  the  amount  necessary  for  comfort  and  con- 
venience, nineteen-twentieths  of  the  mo  ey  actually  being 
clue  to  the  poor  heathens  who  have  never  heard  the  name 
of  Jesus,  eloquently  referred  the  people  to  the  Temple  of 
King  Solomon,  which  he  ornamented  with  gold,  ex- 
pending uncounted  millions.  The  Queen  of  Sheba 
travelled  five  thousand  miles  on  a  camel  to  hear  his 
wisdom,  see  his  glory  and  bring  him  a  million  dollars 
worth  of  gold.  Now  what  was  the  matter  with  that 
presiding  elder?  Sad  to  say  he  had  actually  gone  into 
idolatry,  i.  c,  church  worship.  Ecclesiolatry  is  a  specious 
form  of  idolatry  which  is  fast  capturing  the  great  Protes- 
tant Church,  which  God  gave  to  the  world  through  His 
noble  heroes,  Luther,  Bunyan,  Fox,  Knox  and  Wesley, 
the  immortal  leaders  of  the  Holiness  Movement  in  their 
day  and  generation.  Oh,  how  fearful  are  the  inroads  of 
these  alien  gods  this  day ! 

Eucharolatry  has  just  about  captured  the  Lutherans, 
and  is  making  awful  inroads  into  the  others. 

I  am  personally  acquainted  with  a  great  holiness  leader, 
once  an  evangelist,  the  flash  of  whose  keen  New  Jeru- 
salem blade  electrified  many  warriors  to  redoubled  hero- 
ism on  the  battlefield.  He  is  now  a  pastor  and  building 
for  himself  an  institutional  church,  having  accommoda- 
tions not  only  for  all  religious  people,  but  an  Atheneum 
well  supplied  with  reading  matter,  not  only  religious  but 
secular,  and  a  billiard  room  and  ten-pm  alley  for  the 
entertainment  of  the  worldly  people.  He  says  this  is  so 
they  will  not  have  to  run  after  Satan,  but  so  he  can  have 
them  under  his  influence  with  a  chance  to  lead  them  to 
God.  The  last  time  I  heard  from  him,  my  informant 
told  me  that  he  saw  him  walking  around  bossing  the 


Rev  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  193 

work  with  a  great  big  Havana  cigar  in  his  mouth.  So 
you  see  he  is  worshipping  at  the  shrine  of  two  alien  gods, 
ecclesiolatry,  the  Church  god,  and  tobacco,  the  filthy  god. 
Therefore,  though  he  yet  claims  to  be  a  loyal  holiness 
man  and  sanctified,  I  need  not  tell  you  whither  he  has 
drifted,  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

The  downward  trend  in  religion  never  means  any- 
thing short  of  damnation,  because  Satan  is  manipulating 
it,  and  he  is  making  his  full  calculations  upon  taking  all 
who  tinker  with  him  to  Hell.  Now  while  we  investi- 
gate the  mode  of  baptism,  remember  I  am  feeling  great 
concern  for  the  dear  holiness  people  who  are  the  hope 
of  the  world.  God  has  raised  up  this  great  latter-day 
Movement,  with  which  He  is  this  day  girdling  the  globe, 
to  preach  the  everlasting  Gospel  to  all  nations  and  to  call 
out  the  bride  from  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people ; 
to  get  her  robed  and  ready  for  the  speedy  return  of  His 
glorified  Son  to  this  world,  for  Him  to  put  the  devil  out 
and  reign  forever.  I  am  now,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
one  of  the  living  fathers  of  this  Movement.  I  am  so 
glad  that  this  great  revival  of  Holy  Ghost  religion  repre- 
sents all  churches  and  denominations,  with  their  diversi- 
fied ecclesiastical  views  and  ceremonies. 

While  in  India  those  memorable  three  months,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  I  travelled  and  preached  night  and 
day  to  multitudes  of  the  dear  Indians  through  inter- 
preters, and  to  the  missionaries  and  English-speaking 
people  viva  voce.  I  did  not  discriminate  by  hunting  up 
the  Methodists,  who,  in  the  good  providence  of  God,  have 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  members  in  that  country. 
I  went  to  all,  not  passing  by  the  German-Lutherans,  who 
are  doing  noble  work.     We  fellowshipped  with  them  as 


194  Autobiography   of 

holiness  brethren  most  cordially,  and  I  never  did  receive 
a  more  fraternal  welcome  as  they  made  me  feel  free  as 
Gabriel.  I  also  went  and  served  our  feet-washing  holi- 
ness brethren  with  great  delight.  We  had  the  blessed 
consolation  that  we  enjoy  the  glorious  freedom  which 
forever  saves  us  from  a  fault-finding  spirit,  for  the  fires 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  burned  up  the  critic's  cap,  and  if  any 
of  you  are  still  wearing  one,  I  hope  the  Lord  will  pour 
the  fire  on  you  and  burn  it  up  and  that  you  may  never 
buy  another  one.  Satan  has  a  variety  on  hand  very  fan- 
tastical and  beautiful ;  he  charges  you  neither  silver  nor 
gold  if  you  should  desire  to  purchase  one.  You  can 
have  your  choice,  as  he  has  but  one  price  and  that  is 
your  soul. 

After  God  took  Hezekiah  to  Heaven,  his  own  son 
and  successor  led  the  people  back  into  idolatry;  after 
Josiah,  the  great  holiness  leader,  had  gone  to  Heaven, 
his  son,  Jehoiakim,  burned  the  Word  of  the  Lord.  God 
in  signal  mercy  took  those  loyal  kings  to  Heaven  before 
they  saw  the  evil  that  was  coming.  God  is  still  going 
to  have  a  people  on  the  earth,  who  will  hold  up  the 
banner  of  holiness  and  give  the  Gospel  trumpet  no  un- 
certain sound.  After  you  and  I  have  laid  the  armor 
down  and  gone  to  our  account  with  God,  people  of  whom 
we  have  never  heard  nor  thought  will  still  lead  the  em- 
battled hosts  to  victory.  The  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to 
wash  our  own  hands  from  the  blood  of  souls,  rising 
triumphantly  above  the  wild  clangor  of  Satan's  musicians 
celebrating  the  orgies  of  alien  gods,  whether  hydrolatry, 
ecclesiolatry,  pyrolatry,  eucharolatry,  or  some  other 
strange  god,  whose  name  you  have  never  heard.  We 
have  but  one  God,  the  great  Jehovah,  who,  accommoda- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  195 

tory  to  the  glorious  plan  of  salvation,  has  revealed  Him- 
self to  us  in  the  three  persons  of  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost — trinity  in  unity — and  we  have  this 
blessed  and  glorious  Trinity  all  in  our  wonderful  Jesus, 
"who  is  the  head  of  all  government  and  authority,"  Col. 
2 :  10,  and  "you  are  complete  in  Him."  Therefore  when 
you  get  your  attention  on  anything  else,  rest  assured  it 
is  going  to  prove  a  snare. 

When  God  had  so  wonderfully  used  Gideon  to  break 
the  yoke  of  the  Midianites  and  liberate  all  Israel  from 
their  hard  bondage,  they  elected  him  to  the  kingdom  by 
voluntary  acclamation.  He  said  to  them,  "Neither  1 
nor  my  son  shall  ever  be  your  king,  but  the  Lord  God 
of  Israel  shall  be  your  king  forever.  But  one  thing  you 
can  do  for  me,  just  give  me  the  gold  which  you  took  as 
a  prey  from  your  conquered  enemies."  This  they  did 
with  jubilant  enthusiasm.  Then  Gideon  made  a  golden 
image  out  of  it,  of  course,  not  dreaming  of  idolatry, 
from  which  God  had  used  him  to  liberate  his  country. 
He  only  aimed  at  it  as  a  souvenir  of  the  great  and  glor- 
ious victory  which  they  could  never  forget.  But  do  you 
not  know  it  proved  a  snare  to  Israel  and  conduced  to 
alienate  them  from  God,  as  they  had  not  the  stamina  to 
withhold  from  it  that  intense  admiration  which  ultimated 
in  the  reverence  which  is  due  to  God  alone?  We  cannot 
keep  our  experience  beyond  the  day  of  our  simplicity, 
and  perfect  humility  at  the  feet  of  Jesus. 

When  we  entered  upon  the  Campbellite  war,  their 
champion  invariably  affirmed,  "Christian  baptism  is  im- 
mersion." Campbell  always  affirmed  it  and  claimed  it 
was  his  prerogative  to  wield  the  laboring  oar,  as  he  had 
the  truth.     In  debate  it  devolves  on  the  affirmative  to 


196  Autobiography   otf 

prove  his  proposition ;  the  negative  has  nothing  to  do  but 
to  refute  the  arguments  of  the  affirmative.  They  had 
always  in  their  debate  affirmed  immersion ;  therefore 
when  they  led  off,  with  me  in  the  negative,  my  only 
normal  work  was  to  refute  their  arguments,  if  I  could ; 
if  not,  of  course  they  gained  the  day.  In  all  of  these 
discussions  we  obligated  ourselves  in  writing  to  recog- 
nize the  Bible  as  the  authority.  Of  course  I  had  noth- 
ing to  do  but  just  read  the  precious,  infallible  Word 
and  refute  all  of  their  arguments  from  it.  The  result 
was  that  they  so  weakened  on  the  mode,  that  after  awhile 
they  refused  to  take  the  affirmative  and  wield  the  labor- 
ing oar,  but  said  if  I  would  take  the  affirmative,  they 
would  still  debate  the  subject  with  me  in  the  negative. 
To  this  I  acquiesced  at  once  and  accepted  the  situation, 
granting  my  opponent  the  privilege  of  stating  the  propo- 
sition to  suit  himself.  Then  they  stated  it,  "Christian 
baptism  is  affusion,"  saying  that  if  I  would  lead  off  in 
that  affirmation  they  would  follow  in  the  negative.  Of 
course  in  their  negative  arguments,  disproving  affusion, 
they  would  prove  immersion.  As  the  years  rolled  on, 
the  battle  still  raging,  they  continued  to  weaken  till  they 
refused  to  debate  at  all. 

You  see  from  this  ten  years'  war  how  they  fought  and 
lost.  As  "Immersion  for  remission"  is  really  their  god, 
they  staked  everything  on  it.  They  had  so  long  had  their 
own  way  that  they  were  perfectly  confident  that  their 
doctrines  were  irrefutable.  As  the  years  rolled  on  and 
the  war  waxed  hot,  the  whole  country  got  stirred  up 
with  these  debates,  which  we  thoroughly  advertised  long 
beforehand  in  the  papers  of  both  Church  and  state,  and 
vast   multitudes   came    from   a   distance   thronging   like 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  197 

great  camp-meetings.  The  Campbellites  eventually  found 
out  that  it  was  not  a  one-sided  affair,  as  they  supposed, 
but  a  game  at  which  two  could  play,  and  the  people  far 
and  wide  were  finding  out  to  their  surprise  the  weakness 
of  their  course,  and  seeing  that  they  had  been  mistaken. 
The  result  was  that  they  got  weaker  and  weaker,  till  the 
time  came  when  the  tables  were  all  turned  around  and 
we  became  the  challenging  party;  they  operating  on  the 
negative. 

From  the  days  of  Campbell  they  had  affirmed  immer- 
sion. The  time  came  when  they  refused  to  affirm  it,  and 
said  they  would  be  willing  to  debate  if  I  would  affirm 
affusion.  This  I  did  with  great  delight,  knowing  that 
my  foundation  was  sure,  the  eternal  Word  of  God.  The 
time  came  when  they  actually  broke  down  on  the  nega- 
tive, as  they  had  on  the  affirmative,  and  refused  to  debate 
any  more.  They  saw  that  the  weakness  of  their  cause 
had  become  a  matter  of  surprise  and  notoriety.  While 
I,  having  been  brought  up  under  the  regime  of  the  good 
old-style  Holy  Ghost  religion,  never  had  any  leaning 
toward  their  heresies,  yet  I  supposed  that  they  had 
stronger  arguments  than  I  found  when  I  crossed  swords 
with  them.  I  was  overwhelmed  with  astonishment  at 
the  very  weakness  of  their  cause.  So  it  was  like  the 
controversy  of  Saul  and  David,  the  latter  waxed  stronger 
and  the  former  weaker  to  the  end.  Consequently,  twenty 
years  ago,  with  our  New  Jerusalem  blades  keener  and 
brighter  than  ever,  behold  we  found  the  enemies'  camp 
deserted. 

Twenty  years  of  conquered  peace  have  rolled  away; 
the  beautiful  blue  grass  is  growing  tall  and  green  on 
the  plains  once  hardened  by  the  tread  of  the  soldiers  and 


198  Autobiography   op 

now  grown  rich  by  the  blood  and  bone  of  the  warriors 
there  fallen  amid  the  din  of  conflict.  Those  of  us  who 
passed  through  the  war  from  beginning  to  end  are  full 
of  praises  to  God  for  His  unspeakable  mercies,  redeem- 
ing that  land,  the  most  lovely  I  have  ever  seen  in  my 
"round  the  world"  tours,  from  the  galling  yoke  of  the 
cruel  old  water-god,  and  elevating  it  above  the  inunda- 
tions of  the  arctic  rivers,  which  had  not  only  flooded 
Immanuel's  lands  and  drowned  out  the  crops,  but 
brought  down  on  us  a  north  pole  blizzard,  which  had 
already  strewn  the  land  far  and  wide  with  spiritual 
corpses.  This  war  was,  in  the  providence  of  God,  the 
glorious  antecedent  of  the  Holiness  Movement  which 
immediately  followed  it. 

I  am  so  glad  God  loves  everybody  with  perfect  love. 
I  wish  all  the  holiness  people  would  join  me  in  prayer 
for  the  whole  Campbellite  denomination,  that  they  may 
give  up  their  hydrolatry  and  give  Jesus  a  chance  to  save 
and  sanctify  them.  Here  on  the  "Mount  of  Blessings," 
where  I  dictate  these  pages,  we  have  constantly  in  "God's 
Bible  School"  two  hundred  blood-washed  and  fire-bap- 
tized young  people.  We  also  have  a  blessed  holiness  col- 
lege at  Wilmore,  Ky.,  where  many  young  preachers  are 
preparing  to  disseminate  the  blessed  saving  truths  of  God. 
To  both  of  these  holiness  schools  I  especially  "recom- 
mend my  dear  old  state,  the  charming  land  of  old  Ken- 
tucky, that  you  make  it  your  special  field  of  labor,  and 
never  forget  to  show  your  loving  kindness  to  the  Camp- 
bellites.  Do  all  you  can  to  help  them  spiritually,  as  they 
have  spent  their  lives  encompassed  with  dead  legalism 
and  been  cultured  in  the  pestilential  dogmatisms,  of  anti- 
Christianity,  which  Satan,  the  great  deceiver,  has  been 
poking  off  on  them  for  genuine  Christianity. 


Chapter  VII. 
ARGUMENTS  FOR  BAPTISM   BY  AFFUSION. 

"Brother  Godbey,  please  for  our  edification  give  us  a 
little  sketch  of  the  arguments  by  which  you  proved  the 
proposition  which  they  asked  you  to  affirm,  i.  e.}  Chris- 
tian baptism  is  affusion. 

Well,  first,  "Christian"  is  an  adjective  from  the  noun 
Christ  and  means  something  appertaining  to  Christ, 
therefore  Christian  baptism  is  really  and  literally  the 
baptism  which  Christ  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
fire.  You  know  He  never  did  baptize  anybody  with 
water.  Now  we  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  look  in  the 
Bible  and  see  how  He  does  it.  You  well  know  that  He 
baptized  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  according  to  the  word  of  John  the  Baptist, 
Matthew  3:11,  "I  indeed  baptise  you  with  water  .  .  . 
but  He  will  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
tire."  This  prophecy  of  John  the  Baptist  was  literally 
fulfilled  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  when  Jesus  did  baptize 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty  disciples.  Now  the  ques- 
tion of  mode  is  quickly  and  easily  answered.  If  you 
will  read  Peter's  sermon  on  that  very  occasion  you  will 
find  he  tells  us  all  first  thing  how  the  Savior  did  it, 
Acts  2:  16,  "But  this  is  that  which  was  spoken  by  the 
prophet  Joel;  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days, 
saith  the  Lord,  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  all  flesh." 

199 


2oo  Autobiography   op 

In  many  places  in  the  New  Testament  we  are  informed 
that  the  Spirit  and  the  fire  fell  on  them.  So  here  you 
have  the  mode  of  Christian  baptism  positively  revealed, 
needing  no  comment,  as  I  am  not  writing  this  to  infidels 
but  to  Christians  who  believe  the  Bible.  Therefore  you 
see  the  question  is  already  forever  settled  that  our  Savior 
baptizes  by  affusion.  That  is  the  only  baptism  in  all  the 
world,  the  symbolic  ordinance  with  water  being  the  mere 
outward  form  of  the  real  baptism  which  Jesus  gives  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire. 

The  hyclrolaters  endeavor  to  relegate  the  Savior's  bap- 
tism to  that  day  on  which  He  gave  it  to  His  disciples. 
You  know  three  thousand  were  converted  in  the  morning 
service  and  five  thousand  in  the  afternoon.  Peter,  in 
that  noble  sermon  doing  his  best  to  convince  his  audience 
of  a  hundred  thousand  people  that  it  was  their  privilege 
to  have  it,  that  it  was  not  restricted  to  the  apostles,  posi- 
tively certified,  in  connection  with  his  quotation  from 
Joel  which  extended  it  to  all  flesh,  i.  e.,  to  every  human 
being  of  all  ages  and  nations,  to  them,  "For  the  promise 
is  to  you  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all  zvho  are  afar 
off,  even  so  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  may  call." 

You  see,  then,  from  the  plain  Word  of  God,  that  the 
baptism  which  the  Savior  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
fire  is  for  all  people  in  every  age,  without  a  solitary  ex- 
ception. Paul  tells  us  in  Ephesians  4:4,  that  this  is 
really  the  only  baptism,  thus  leaving  no  door  open  for 
men  and  devils  to  creep  in  and  usurp  the  Word  of  Christ. 
We  can  only  represent  it  to  mortal  eyes  by  the  admin- 
istration of  water,  which  is  the  symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Therefore  you  see  that  Jesus,  the  great  Baptizer,  who 
must  baptize  every  human  soul  that  shall  ever  walk  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  201 

golden  streets,  invariably  administers  it  by  affusion.  On 
this  the  Word  is  so  conclusive  that  nothing  but  infidel- 
ity unambuscaded  can  deny  it.  I  hope  you  are  already 
dead  to  your  notions  and  ideas,  which  are  frequently 
erroneous  because  of  wrong  teaching;  what  people  say 
is  nothing;  what  God  says  will  judge  you  and  me  in  the 
last  day. 

Second.  "Was  not  Jesus  Himself  immersed  in  the  river 
Jordan?"  Let  Him  answer.  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke 
all  tell  us  about  the  trouble  He  got  into  with  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees  when  He  came  into  the  holy  campus,  (E. 
V.,  temple),  and  drove  out  those  animals  which  they  had 
there  to  sell  to  the  people  for  sacrifices,  much  to  the 
desecration  and  pollution  of  that  sacred  place.  Then 
they  demanded  of  Him  His  authority  for  exercising  the 
privileges  which  belonged  only  to  the  high  priest.  You 
will  find  if  you  will  read  all  of  these  three  records,  that 
He  referred  them  to  the  baptism  of  John  for  His  author- 
ity, showing  plainly  that  He  was  thereby  inducted  into 
the  office  of  high  priest.  Now  if  you  know  how  the 
high  priest  was  anointed  you  know  how  John  baptized 
Jesus.  I  know  you  remember  this  item  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, where  it  says  that  Moses  poured  the  oil  on  the 
head  of  Aaron.  Consequently  we  know  that  John  poured 
the  water  on  the  head  of  Jesus.  This  all  of  the  ancient 
statuary  corroborates,  which,  without  an  exception, 
represents  Jesus  standing  and  John  pouring  the  water 
on  His  head. 

Third.  King  James'  Translation  was  made  by  forty- 
seven  scholarly  members  of  the  Anglican  Church,  who 
had  been  baptized  by  triune  immersion,  which  came  into 
use  as  early  as  the  third  century  and  had  not  passed  out 


202  Autobiography   of 

when  the  translation  took  place  in  1611.  Therefore  that 
translation  constantly  leans  to  immersion,  because  it  was 
the  mind  of  the  translators,  therefore  it  has  given  cur- 
rency to  a  popular  superstition  in  favor  of  immersion. 
Many  people  think  it  says  our  Savior  went  down  into 
■the  water.  It  does  say  He  came  up  out  of  the  water, 
which  is  simply  a  wrong  translation,  and  if  you  will  look 
in  the  Revised  or  any  other  translation,  you  will  find  it 
corrected,  simply  reading,  "He  came  up  from  the  water," 
only  implying  that  He  was  at  it  and  not  in  it. 

Fourth.  Let  us  hear  the  testimony  of  John  himself. 
He  tells  us  how  he  baptized  Jesus  and  all  the  balance. 
John  was  the  brightest  and  the  best  preacher  of  the 
Gospel  the  world  had  ever  seen.  Besides,  this  is  not 
simply  the  word  of  the  blessed  Baptist  but  the  infallible 
Word  of  God.  Matthew  3  Ml,  "I  indeed  baptize  you 
with  water  unto  repentance  .  .  .  but  He  will  baptize 
you  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire!'  Here  he  tells  us  all 
how  he  baptized  the  people.  You  know  he  uses  the  same 
word  baptize  to  tell  us  that  he  did  with  water  what 
Jesus  was  going  to  do  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire. 
You  know  that  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  Jesus 
baptized  the  disciples  in  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy  of 
John,  He  poured  on  them  His  Spirit  and  fire  fell  on 
them.  If  you  will  let  the  Lord  save  you  from  all  your 
prejudices  and  superstitions,  so  you  can  take  John  at 
his  word  and  believe  him  without  a  doubt,  you  will  know 
once  and  forever  that  John  did  to  the  people  with  water 
the  very  thing  that  Jesus  did  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
fire.  Yes,  but,  you  say,  why  then  did  he  baptize  them 
in  the  river?  That  does  not  change  the  question  of  the 
action  he  performed.    If  they  were  standing  in  the  river 


Rf:v.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  203 

waist  deep  it  is  certain  that  John  poured  the  water  on 
them,  because  he  says  so,  and  we  know  his  word  is  true. 
All  of  that  statement  "in  the  river,"  was  simply  put 
down  there  by  King  James'  translators,  who  had  received 
the  triune  immersion  and  had  it  in  mind.  All  the  state- 
ments in  the  original  are  merely  local,  and  perfectly  cor- 
rectly translated,  "in  the  river"  or  "at  the  Jordan,"  just 
as  we  say  Cincinnati  is  on  the  Ohio  River,  and  not  in  it. 

I  have  been  to  the  Jordan  three  times  and  given  special 
attention  to  the  very  place  where  John  held  his  meetings 
and  Israel  crossed  over.  The  last  time  I  was  there,  pur- 
suant to  their  request,  I  immersed  the  three  "Texas  boys" 
in  the  Jordan.  We  four  and  our  guide  and  escort  hunted 
in  vain  for  a  good  place,  and  of  course  took  the  best 
we  could  get.  It  was  so  muddy,  as  it  always  is,  that 
we  could  not  see  an  inch  below  the  surface,  and  our 
guide,  Shukrey  Hishmeh,  born  in  Jerusalem  and  edu- 
cated for  a  guide,  who  has  been  escorting  travellers  all 
over  that  country  for  the  last  twenty  years,  feeling  his 
responsibility  in  case  that  some  of  us  should  get  drowned, 
did  his  best  to  dissuade  the  young  men,  telling  them  that 
he  had  seen  men  drowned  right  there.  But  they,  fear- 
less of  the  water,  as  they  are  splendid  swimmers,  some- 
what condoled  his  fears  by  relieving  him  of  all  respon- 
sibility, and  assuming  it  themselves,  as  a  guide  is  respon- 
sible for  his  people,  like  a  railroad  company. 

Finally  we  selected  the  best  place  we  could  get,  and 
I  waded  down  in  black  mud  nearly  to  my  kn^es  and  en- 
deavored to  find  a  foothold.  Our  guide  said  the  river 
was  about  fifteen  feet  deep.  As  I  could  not  find  any 
bench  on  the  bank,  and  it  was  so  steep,  I  had  both  my 
guide  and  our  armed  escort  come  in  and  hold  me,  lest 


204  Autobiography    of 

my  feet  should  slide  and  I  be  drowned.  The  current  is 
so  swift  and  the  river  has  so  much  fall  that  a  man  cannot 
stand  in  il ;  besides  it  is  so  deep  that  it  would  be 
over  the  head  of  the  tallest  giant  on  the  globe.  So  I 
cheerfully  and  gladly,  pursuant  to  their  desire,  immersed 
my  travelling  companions  in  the  Jordan  ;  meanwhile  those 
two  stalwart,  active  Arabs  held  me.  But  all  the  facts 
in  the  case  of  John,  and  especially  his  testimony,  utterly 
annihilate  the  idea  of  immersion. 

Fifth.  The  Word  tells  us  that  all  Jerusalem  and  Judaea 
and  the  regions  about  Jordan  came  out  and  were  baptized 
of  him  at  the  Jordan.  Having  preached  awhile  in  the 
desert,  where  water  is  so  scarce  that  the  people  could 
not  get  a  drink,  he  moved  to  the  Jordan,  which  is  in  full 
view,  just  as  we  always  select  a  well-watered  place  for 
a  great  meeting.  The  population  above  mentioned  as 
baptized  by  John  actually  reached  six  millions.  John  only 
continued  his  ministry  about  six  months  until  Herod  shut 
him  up  in  prison.  If  he  had  been  an  iron  man,  the  phy- 
sical labor  would  have  worn  him  out  if  he  had  handled 
all  those  people  immersing  them  in  the  river.  It  was 
absolutely  a  physical  impossibility ;  whereas  John  posi- 
tively tells  us  he  did  not  do  it.  He  says,  "I  indeed  bap- 
tize you  with  water."  In  this  and  many  other  similar 
phrases,  water  is  the  dative  of  instrumentality,  showing 
that  he  handled  the  water  instead  of  the  people.  Im- 
mersionists  try  to  construe  that  in  water;  in  that  case, 
however,  the  grammatical  construction  would  be  entirely 
different,  requiring  the  accusative  case,  instead  of  the 
dative,  which  we  have  in  all  of  the  passages.  There  is 
a  rule  in  the  Greek  grammar  which  positively  states, 
"motion  to  governs  the  accusative."     If  he  had  plunged 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  205 

them  down  into  the  water,  it  would  be  eis  to  hudoa; 
whereas  it  is  in  some  places  en  hudati,  and  in  others  just 
the  simple  hudati,  utterly  unsusceptible  of  any  other  con- 
struction, except  "with  water."  When  we  have  to  violate 
Greek  grammar  and  make  the  inspired  writers  contradict 
themselves,  you  may  know  we  are  pulling  against  wind 
and  tide  to  establish  some  human  dogma  which  is  alien 
to  the  Word  of  God. 

Sixth.  John  was  a  Jewish  priest,  so  born.  They  had 
been  baptizing  by  sprinkling  from  the  days  of  Moses ; 
they  sprinkled  all  the  people  at  the  tabernacle  door,  upon 
the  ratification  of  the  Sinai  covenant  in  the  wilderness. 
Heb.  9:  19.  But  did  he  baptize  them?  Most  assuredly. 
Lift  your  eye  up  to  the  tenth  verse  and  read,  "ivhich 
stood  only  in  meats  and  drinks  and  divers  baptisms." 
The  English  Version  says  "divers  washings,"  but  bap- 
tism is  a  Greek  word  which  has  been  transferred  to  the 
English  language,  without  translating  it,  and  here  we 
have  it  in  direct  reference  to  the  transaction,  when  Moses 
actually  baptized  all  the  people  by  sprinkling.  Ezek.  36: 
25,  "Then  will  I  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you  .  .  .  A 
nezv  heart  also  will  I  give  you  .  .  .  and  I  will  take  away 
the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh."  This  is  a  direct  pro- 
phecy of  the  Gospel  dispensation  in  which  we  are  now 
living,  in  which  God  gives  the  new  heart  in  regeneration 
and  takes  away  the  stony  heart  in  sanctification,  and  you 
see  the  sprinkling  of  clean  water  on  the  people  as  the 
symbolic  concomitant.  How  sweet,  precious  and  clear  do 
we  find  God's  Bible !  Let  us  take  it  as  it  is.  I  would  not 
change  any  of  it  to  save  my  head  from  the  executioner's 
block. 

Ezekiel  there  in  the  light  of  prophecy  is  looking  on  the 


206  Autobiography   of 

beautiful  and  glorious  liberty  of  the  Gospel  dispensation, 
when  God  is  converting  sinners  and  sanctifying  believers, 
and  symbolizing  the  glorious  work  of  the  Spirit  by  the 
beautiful  ordinance  of  Christian  baptism,  sprinkling  the 
clean  water  on  the  people,  through  the  instrumentality  of 
His  Gospel  heralds. 

In  the  third  century  the  sainted  Origen  stood  at  the 
front  of  the  Church,  the  greatest  scholar  and  author 
in  it.  Writing  in  his  native  Greek  about  the  transaction  of 
Elijah  with  the  false  prophets  on  Mount  Carmel,  when 
he  poured  those  twelve  barrels  of  water,  (Hebrew  pit- 
chers), on  the  sacrifice  in  order  to  convince  the  multi- 
tude that  there  was  no  concealed  fire  about,  so  they 
would  know  of  a  certainty  that  God  sent  the  fire  down 
from  Heaven,  uses  this  word  baptizo,  which  is  used 
throughout  the  New  Testament  to  reveal  the  ordinance 
of  baptism.  You  cannot  avoid  seeing  in  that  case  that 
this  Greek  word  is  consistent  with  the  idea  of  pouring 
the  water  on  the  people.  Hence  the  attitude  of  the  im- 
mersionists  that  it  never  does  mean  anything  but  to 
plunge  into  the  water  is  utterly  untenable.  Here  is  a 
great  preacher  who  had  spoken  Greek  from  his  infancy 
and  written  more  books  than  any  other  man  in  the 
Church.  You  see  he  uses  that  word  baptizo  in  the  sense 
where  it  could  not  possibly  have  any  other  meaning  ex- 
cept pouring  water  on  that  altar. 

I  have  no  doubt  but  that  when  John  baptized  Jesus, 
he  took  Him  alone  and  poured  the  water  on  His  head, 
as  Moses  poured  the  anointing  oil  on  Aaron's  head. 
You  know  he  at  first  refused  to  baptize  Him,  feeling  un- 
worthy, but  when  Jesus  said,  "It  behooves  us  to  fulfill  all 
righteousness,"  then  he  acquiesced,  as  the  law  of  Moses 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  207 

required,  before  Jesus   entered   upon    His  official   Mes- 
siahship  into  which  John  was  sent  to  induct  Him. 

Seventh.  People  often  say  that  Jesus  was  baptized 
to  give  us  an  example.  In  that  they  are  utterly  mis- 
taken. You  might  as  well  say  He  was  crucified  to  give 
us  an  example.  He  alone  had  to  be  crucified  to  redeem 
the  world.  We  are  not  high  priests,  but  He  was,  and 
He  had  to  be  anointed  before  He  could  enter  upon  His 
office.  Besides,  our  baptism  is  unto  the  remission  of  sins, 
i.  e.,  it  symbolizes  the  remission  of  sins.  That  was  not 
so  in  His  case,  for  He  had  no  sins  to  be  remitted.  He 
received  the  Holy  Ghost  immediately  after  John  bap- 
tized Him,  because  His  humanity,  like  yours  and  mine, 
needed  the  Holy  Ghost  to  qualify  Him  to  preach  the 
Gospel  and  perform  His  mighty  works.  But  He  was  not 
baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  in  order  to  purify  Him 
from  sin.  He  never  had  any  sin,  and  baptism  means  a 
purification,  which  He  did  not  need.  With  us  the  bap- 
tism of  water  symbolizes  that  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  without 
which  we  cannot  be  saved.  You  must  remember  that 
we  are  all  sinners  by  nature,  "but  He  knew  no  sin,  neith- 
er was  guile  found  in  His  mouth."  Therefore  it  is  utterly 
confusing  to  draw  the  parallel  between  us  and  Him.  His 
life  is  our  example,  but  this  baptism  is  His  induction 
into  the  Messiahship,  in  which  He  stands  alone  in  the 
universe.  While  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  John  took 
Him  alone  and  baptized  Him,  when  he  baptized  those 
multitudes  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  he  took  them  in 
groups,  as  they  manifested  the  fruits  of  repentance.  Like 
Moses  baptizing  all  Israel  at  the  tabernacle  door,  on  the 
ratification  of  the  Sina'ic  covenant,  I  trow  he  dipped 
the  hyssop  in  the  water,  and  swept  it  over  the  people 


208  Autobiography    op 

as  they  stood  before  him.  Doubtless  John  pursued  a 
course  of  that  kind,  as  we  must  remember  that  preach- 
ing was  his  great  work ;  therefore,  in  his  symbolic  con- 
secration to  a  life  of  repentance  and  obedience,  doubtless 
he  was  very  expeditious. 

"Brother  Godbey,  give  us  the  definition  of  baptism." 
The  Bible  is  God's  dictionary  and  our  only  lexical  author- 
ity. In  John  3 :  25  you  see  baptism  clearly  defined  to  be 
a  purification,  the  Greek  word  being  catherismos,  the 
noun  from  catherizo,  to  purify — it  simply  means  a  puri- 
fication. If  you  will  read  the  context,  you  will  find  it 
is  given  in  connection  with  the  controversy  in  reference 
to  the  relative  importance  of  the  baptism  administered 
by  John  and  that  administered  by  our  Lord's  diciples. 

You  will  find  another  clear  and  unequivocal  definition 
in  Luke  11:37-39.  When  Jesus,  having  responded  to 
the  invitation  of  a  Pharisee  to  dine  with  him,  coming 
in  sat  down  at  the  table  without  washing  His  hands,  the 
Pharisee,  who  was  so  stickleristical  about  outward  purity 
that  he  always  washed  his  hands  before  eating,  lest  he 
had  come  in  contact  with  something  unclean,  e.  g.,  an 
animal,  camel,  donkey,  dog,  or  a  Gentile,  found  fault. 
Then  Jesus  responded,  "You  Pharisees  make  clean  the 
outside  of  the  cup  and  plate,  but  within  it  is  full  of 
iniquity  and  defilement."  Here  He  uses  the  prominent 
word,  cotharizo,  whose  constant  meaning  is  to  purify, 
and  it  is  here  used  synonymously  with  baptizo,  as  ap- 
plied to  the  washing  of  hands.  But,  you  say,  in  wash- 
ing the  hands  we  are  apt  to  immerse  them.  That  is  so, 
but  not  necessarily.  This  was  not  a  question  of  washing 
the  Savior's  hands,  but  says  He  was  baptized,  i.  e.,  when 
He  just  washed  His  hands,  the  whole  man  was  baptized. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  209 

This  is  precisely  parallel  with  the  ordinary  practice  of 
baptism — we  put  a  little  water  on  the  head  and  the 
whole  person  is  baptized.  Why,  the  sticklerism  of  some 
immersionists  would  actually  bring  back  on  us  the  old 
yoke  of  legalism,  which  the  Hebrew  fathers  were  unable 
to  bear.  N.  B.  Jesus  has  broken  every  yoke  that  men 
and  devils  ever  put  on  us,  then  why  shall  we  not  be  free? 

Were  not  the  Pentecostians  immersed  ?  I  am  perfectly 
assured  that  they  were  not.  Jerusalem  is  a  mountainous 
city,  above  the  water  line,  too  high  to  dig  wells.  If  they 
were  to  dig  they  would  not  find  water.  I  have  been 
there  at  the  very  time  of  the  year  when  the  Pentecostal 
revival  took  place,  and  water  was  so  scarce  that  if  I 
took  a  drink  I  had  to  buy  it.  Lemonade  was  so  cheap 
and  delicious  that  I  drank  it  altogether  as  a  substitute 
for  water.  Some  will  tell  you  that  there  was  plenty  of 
water  at  the  temple  where  they  had  a  brazen  sea.  If 
they  did,  no  one  was  allowed  to  get  in  it ;  they  drew  it 
out  when  they  wanted  to  use  it.  Besides,  you  must  re- 
member that  the  Christians  were  discarded  by  the  rulers 
of  the  Church  and  state  as  wild  fanatics  and  outlaws. 
The  priests  who  had  so  recently  killed  their  Leader  had 
charge  of  the  temple  and  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  get  any  favors  from  them.  They  were  all  arrayed 
against  the  Nazarenes,  persecuting  the  apostles  unto 
stripes  and  imprisonment,  and  would  have  killed  them 
had  not  the  Sanhedrim's  great  leader,  Gamaliel,  inter- 
posed in  their  behalf. 

I  am  better  acquainted  with  Jerusalem  than  with  any 
other  city  in  the  world,  because  it  is  God's  holy  city, 
where  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  and  Jesus  and  His 
apostles,  have  hallowed  the  very  earth  with  their  tread. 


aio  Autobiography   op 

I  have  been  there  three  times  and  have  spent  thirty-two 
days  within  its  bounds.  In  Bible  times  the  city  was 
supplied  with  water  from  the  pools  of  Solomon,  twelve 
miles  distant  in  the  mountains,  and  conveyed  thither  by 
an  aqueduct.  There  was  no  immersion  water  nigher  than 
the  Jordan,  forty  miles  away,  and  it  is  certain  that  they 
did  not  go  there,  and  equally  certain  that  they  did  not  go 
to  the  pools  of  Solomon ;  if  they  had  they  would  not 
have  been  permitted  to  immerse  in  them. 

Now  take  the  facts  that  three  thousand  were  baptized 
in  connection  with  the  forenoon  service,  and  five  thou- 
sand in  the  afternoon,  and  no  special  time  appointed  for 
it.  Then  consider  the  fact  that  they  were  all  Jews  who 
had  been  baptized  by  sprinkling  from  the  days  of  Moses, 
and  the  only  possible  conclusion  consistent  with  the  en- 
vironments is  in  favor  of  the  simple  Jewish  affusion, 
to  which  they  were  all  accustomed,  as  baptism  is  not  a 
Christian  institution,  but  a"  Jewish,  perpetuated  into  the 
Christian  dispensation. 

When  Mark,  seventh  chapter,  says  that  the  Pharisees 
washed  every  time  they  returned  from  the  forum,  the 
original  says  they  baptized.  Of  course  it  was  their  simple 
ceremonial  purification,  lest  they  had  become  polluted 
by  contact  with  Gentiles,  unclean  animals,  lepers,  dead 
people,  sepulchres  and  many  other  things  by  which  they 
might  contract  ceremonial  defilement,  and  in  that  case 
be  prohibited  from  the  tabernacle  service  till  the  water 
of  purification  was  sprinkled  on  them  by  some  ceremon- 
ially clean  person.  They  made  it  a  point  for  some  old 
person  or  infirm  member  of  the  family  who  needed  rest 
to  stay  about  the  house,  while  all  the  able-bodied  went 
off  and  labored  through  the  day,  and  were  nearly  certain 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  211 

to  come  into  contact  with  ceremonial  defilement  in  some 
way,  i.  c,  the  camel  and  donkey,  the  most  common  and 
useful  animals  in  that  country  are  both  unclean  and  they 
work  with  them  all  the  time.  Here  it  is  said  in  the  Eng- 
lish Version  that  they  washed  every  time  they  came  in 
from  the  market-place  where  they  worked,  and  my  ver- 
sion, which  gives  it  just  the  way  the  Lord  does,  says  bap- 
tized. The  Greek  is  the  very  word  used  for  the  ordinance 
of  baptism.  Now  in  Leviticus  you  will  find  the  law  of 
clean  and  unclean  specified ;  they  had  to  be  sprinkled 
with  the  blood  of  the  red  heifer.  This  animal  had  to  be 
blood  red  without  a  spot  or  blemish,  thus  symbolizing 
the  blood  of  Christ.  The  feminine  gender  represents  the 
wonderful  fruitfulness  of  the  atonement,  really  the 
mother  of  all  God's  children.  As  it  was  expensive  to 
slaughter  one  of  these  animals  for  every  occasion  of 
ceremonial  defilement,  the  law  permitted  them  to  burn 
the  animal  utterly  into  ashes,  leaving  nothing  at  all,  and 
then  drop  jnst  a  dust  or  two  of  these  ashes  into  water, 
thus  constituting  it  the  water  of  purification.  One  animal 
thus  consumed  into  ashes  would  suffice  a  whole  com- 
munity for  a  long  time.  Then  any  ceremonially  clean 
person  who  had  not  gone  out  and  incurred  the  defile- 
ment was  competent  to  serve  all  the  balance,  dipping  the 
hyssop  into  the  water  and  sprinkling  it  upon  the  subject 
of  ceremonial  defilement.  This  is  currently  called  bap- 
tism in  the  New  Testament.  In  many  cases,  where  in 
the  English  Version  you  have  the  word  wash,  in  the 
Greek  it  is  baptize,  as  you  can  see  in  my  translation. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  many  a  pious  Jew  was 
baptized  forty  thousand  times  in  his  life,  and  perhaps 
many  more,  because  the  Jews  had  a  hundred  times  as 


212  Autobiography    of 

much  ceremony  in  their  religion  as  the  Christians  do. 
Those  ceremonies  symbolize  the  work  of  Christ  who  has 
already  come  and  His  work  been  fulfilled.  As  those  Jews 
were  baptized  frequently  every  day  of  their  lives,  you 
see  the  very  same  people  whom  John  baptized,  many  of 
them,  when  Jesus  began  to  preach,  were  baptized  by 
His  disciples.  You  remember  that  when  Paul  came  to 
Ephesus  and  found  those  twelve  men  who  had  been  con- 
verted by  the  preaching  of  Apollos  who  had  come  from 
Africa,  being  a  disciple  of  John  the  Baptist  and  a  power- 
ful preacher  in  the  Johanic  dispensation,  but  who  had 
not  heard  of  the  mighty  work  of  Christ  and  His  cruci- 
fixion for  the  world,  (as  they  had  no  newspapers  then), 
though  they  had  received  the  Johanic  baptism  unto  re- 
pentance administered  by  Apollos,  yet  Paul  had  them 
baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Hence  you  see 
how  loosely  the  Jews  held  baptism,  using  it  freely  to  seal 
their  consecrations,  in  case  they  made  any  new  departure 
in  the  Divine  life ;  i.  e.,  when  they  received  a  great  and 
glorious  spiritual  uplift  they  symbolized  it  by  water  bap- 
tism. 

In  i  Cor.  15:29,  Paul  alludes  to  the  baptizing  for  the 
dead,  i.  c,  while  those  flaming  Pentecostians  were  run- 
ning all  over  the  country  preaching  from  house  to  house, 
and  telling  the  people  that  the  Christ  for  whom  they  all 
had  been  looking  all  their  lives  had  already  come  and 
redeemed  the  world  and  gone  back  to  Heaven,  and  that 
the  thing  for  them  to  do  was  to  believe  Him  and  confess 
Him  before  the  world  by  baptism,  thus  passing  out  of 
the  dispensation  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  into  that 
of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  therefore  they  proceeded  at 
once  to  baptize  them.     Meanwhile  they  found  some  of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  213 

them  in  deep  distress  because  the  father  or  mother, 
brother  or  sister,  or  other  members  of  the  family,  had 
died  before  the  good  news  of  the  Messiah  reached  them, 
and  in  their  flowing  tears  they  observed,  "Oh,  that 
mother  had  lived  to  this  day!  How  she  would  be  de- 
lighted to  receive  baptism  in  the  name  of  our  blessed 
Christ  for  whom  she  watched  and  prayed  all  her  life, 
but  died  without  the  sight.  Will  you  not  permit  me  to 
receive  baptism  as  her  substitute?"  Then  the  evangelist 
unhesitatingly  granted  that  privilege,  and  baptized  her 
the  second  time,  as  the  substitute  of  her  mother  who 
had  gone  on  to  paradise.  Or  a  brother  begs  the  evangel- 
ist to  baptize  him  in  lieu  of  his  dear  elder  brother,  who 
is  now  lying  in  the  family  sepulchre.  To  this  he  cheer- 
fully consents,  favoring  his  pious  request.  The  very  fact 
that  it  was  a  common  thing  for  those  primitive  Chris- 
tians to  receive  baptism  in  lieu  of  their  departed  loved 
ones  manifests  the  broad  freedom  they  enjoyed  in  refer- 
ence to  the  ordinance.  Paul  merely  alludes  to  it  as  an 
argument  in  favor  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  which 
is  the  subject  of  that  whole  chapter,  without  a  word  of 
approval  or,  disapproval.  Of  course  it  was  an  innocent 
affair,  or  he  certainly  would  have  corrected  any  dis- 
harmony with  the  will  of  God.  It  falls  in  line  with 
the  uniform  trend  of  the  Scriptures,  recognizing  water 
baptism  as  a  non-essential,  in  which  we  all  enjoy  the  very 
largest  liberties.  In  any  form  whatever,  it  is  a 
beautiful  souvenir  of  the  one  baptism  which  Jesus  gives. 
Eph.  7:5. 

Was  not  the  eunuch  immersed?  you  may  ask.  I  am 
satisfied  he  was  not.  In  the  providence  of  God,  I  have 
six  times  visited  the  place  where  we  have  every  reason 


214  Autobiography   of 

to  believe  the  event  transpired.  It  is  now  on  the  macad- 
amized road  due  south  from  Jerusalem  about  eighteen 
miles.  It  is  a  single  water  spout,  an  inch  .or  two  in 
diameter,  flowing  out  from  a  cliff  on  the  left,  as  we  go 
south.  In  that  country  good  water  is  prized  much  more 
than  in  this,  because  of  its  scarcity.  Every  time  I  visited 
Philip's  fountain  where  he  baptized  the  Ethiopian  eunuch, 
I  found  from  a  dozen  to  twenty  women  with  their  water- 
pots,  waiting  each  her  turn  to  put  the  mouth  under  the 
spot  and  hold  it  till  filled ;  then  setting  it  up  on  her  head 
she  walked  away.  There  is  no  mistake  about  this  being 
the  place.  Baedeker's  guide  book,  which  is  the  authority 
for  all  of  that  country,  as  Mr.  Bsedeker  was  there  thirty 
years  travelling  everywhere  and  investigating  everything, 
says  positively  that  this  is  the  place.  Popular  sentiment 
is  unanimous  in  reference  to  it.  It  is  known  far  and 
near  as  Philip's  fountain  at  which  he  baptized  the 
Ethiopian  eunuch.  There  is  no  chance  for  immersion, 
unless  they  would  catch  the  water  and  keep  it  a  good 
while ;  and  this  would  be  hard  to  do  because  the  people 
depend  on  it  for  constant  use.  It  is  a  splendid  article 
and  the  only  fountain  in  that  neighborhood.  Eusebius, 
the  old  historian  who  lived  in  the  fourth  century,  states 
that  Philip  baptized  the  eunuch  at  the  fountain  of  Beth- 
soran,  which  is  the  name  of  that  place.  The  statements, 
"went  down  into  the  water"  and  "came  up  out  of  the 
water,"  are  surely  gratuitous,  and  optionary  with  the 
translator,  as  eis  means  to,  just  as  literally  as  into,  and 
ek  means  from,  just  as  really  as  out  of.  Therefore  a 
perfectly  correct  translation  would  read,  "went  down  to 
the  water,"  and  "came  up  from  the  water."  There  is 
always  water  standing  around  the  fountain  and  the  peo- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  215 

pie  going  to  it,  nearly  all  barefoot,  wade  into  it,  get  the 
water  and  then  come  out  of  it. 

When  I  took  my  second  tour  in  the  Holy  Land,  in 
1899,  I  was  accompanied  by  Rev.  F.  M.  Hill,  my  son- 
in-law,  and  Rev.  J.  A.  Payne,  of  California.  As  I  had 
been  at  Philip's  fountain  twice  before,  when  the  carriage 
halted  in  front  of  it,  I  did  not  get  out,  but  those  brethren, 
anxious  to  examine  it  closely,  dismounted  and  I  saw 
them  walk  down  into  that  waste  water,  look  at  the  foun- 
tain, catch  some  of  the  water  and  drink  and  bring  me  a 
drink.  Then  they  came  up  out  of  the  water.  Both  of 
them  had  on  shoes  and  I  asked  them  if  they  got  their 
feet  wet,  and  they  answered  in  the  negative.  The  fact 
is  that  "down"  is  antithetical  to  the  "up,"  when  the 
eunuch  invited  Philip  to  come  up  into  the  chariot  and  sit 
with  him.  So  when  they  got  to  the  water,  they  came 
"down"  out  of  the  chariot.  When  they  came  to  it,  the 
eunuch  said,  "idon,"  behold !  He  used  a  note  of  surprise, 
saying,  "behold  water,"  clearly  implying  that  Philip  had 
not  noticed  it,  which  would  not  have  been  the  case  if 
they  were  approaching  a  large  stream.  The  truth  of 
it  is  there  is  actually  no  immersion  water  on  all  of  that 
ridge,  continuous  through  the  Holy  Land  and  extending 
from  the  Great  Sea  on  the  west  to  the  Dead  Sea  and 
the  river  Jordan  on  the  east. 

I  have  heard  many  a  sermon  preached  on  the  eunuch's 
baptism  to  prove  immersion.  It  illustrates  the  deplor- 
able fanaticism  which  so  frequently  takes  the  place  of 
solid  Gospel  truth.  When  I  was  a  boy  I  do  not  think 
I  ever  heard  a  Catnpbellite  sermon  or  exhortation  that 
did  not  give  us  water  baptism  by  wholesale,  which  is 
no  part  of  the  Gospel  =md  never  was.     If  it  had  been, 


216  Autobiography   o? 

Paul  could  not  have  said,  "I  thank  God  that  I  have  bap- 
tized none  of  you,"  i  Cor.  I  :  14.  "For  Christ  sent  me 
not  to  baptize  but  to  preach  the  Gospel,"  verse  17.  It  is 
utterly  impossible  for  you  to  believe  these  words  of  Paul 
and  still  say  that  water  baptism  is  any  part  of  the  Gospel. 
It  is  merely  a  symbolic  ordinance  of  the  Gospel  Church ; 
while  the  Gospel  is  not  forms  and  ceremonies,  "but  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  unto  everyone  that  be- 
lieveth."    Rom.  1 :  6. 

"Power"  here  is  the  Greek  "dynamite,"  that  wonder- 
fully strong  word.  The  most  glorious  privilege  this  side 
of  Heaven  is  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  give  God  a  chance 
to  use  our  humble  instrumentality  for  the  salvation  of 
souls.  It  is  bad  enough  for  the  poor  heathen  to  go  into 
the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna  to  have  their  sins  washed 
away.  Our  hearts  break  in  sympathy  as  we  contem- 
plate them.  Then  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  heathen 
at  home,  who,  amid  the  clear  light  of  this  Gospel  land 
are  so  manipulated  and  deluded  by  Satan  through  uncon- 
verted preachers,  who  are  pursuing  that  business,  as 
many  have  frankly  confessed  to  me  in  debate,  for  a  living, 
like  they  would  pursue  any  other  employment.  It  is 
fearful  to  contemplate.  I  have  been  a  preacher  in  my 
humble  way  for  fifty-three  years.  If  it  would  so  turn 
out  that  I  have  to  go  to  Hell,  I  would  rather  exchange 
places  with  the  gambler  or  the  drunkard.  Rely  upon 
it,  the  preacher's  Hell  is  the  most  awful  in  all  the  dismal 
realms  of  Satan's  dark  pandemonium.  A  preacher  in 
Hell,  forever  tormented  by  the  people  whom  he  had  led 
thither,  eternally  anathematizing  him  and  lashing  him 
with  fire  brands,  as  the  instrument  of  their  own  damna- 
tion, how  awful ! 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  217 

Again  you  may  ask,  were  not  the  people  immersed 
at  the  house  of  Cornelius,  when  Peter  opened  wide  the 
door  of  the  Gospel  Church  to  the  Gentile  world?  While 
he  was  preaching,  you  remember  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on 
his  congregation  and  they  had  a  wonderful  shouting 
time.  Some  were  converted  and  others  sanctified,  espec- 
ially the  latter,  as  they  received  the  Holy  Ghost.  Peter 
said,  Acts  10:  47,  "Whether  is  any  one  able  to  forbid  the 
water  that  these  should  not  be  baptised  who  have  received 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as  me?"  and  he  commanded  that 
they  should  be  baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Here  we  have  a  clear,  notable  case  in  favor  of  affusion. 
Why?  because  Peter  speaks  of  moving  the  water  to  the 
people,  instead  of  moving  the  people  away  to  the  water. 
In  this  passage  we  have  kolusai  hudor,  in  which  hit  dor, 
water,  is  the  subject  and  kolusai  the  verb,  depending  on 
it  for  its  subject.  If  it  had  been  immersion,  as  that  was 
a  private  house,  of  course  it  would  have  been  necessary 
to  go  away  to  the  water.  That  city  is  on  the  sea,  which 
would  have  been  very  convenient  for  immersion.  But 
he  says  nothing  about  going  to  the  water  but  does  speak 
of  moving  the  water  to  them.  There  is  no  doubt  but 
that  the  baptism  was  administered  right  there  in  the 
house  of  Cornelius  where  the  Holy  Ghost  had  fallen 
on  the  people. 

Again,  was  not  Saul  of  Tarsus  immersed  ?  The  Scrip- 
ture certainly  favors  the  conclusion  that  he  received  the 
ordinance  by  affusion.  He  had  been  three  days  prostrate 
on  the  floor,  crying  to  God  for  mercy.  I  have  twice 
visited  the  house  of  Judas  on  Straight  Street  in  Damas- 
cus. There  is  no  immersion  water  in  the  house.  It  is 
in  the  center  of  that  great  city.     Ananias  said  to  him, 


218  Autobiography   op 

"anastas  baptisai."  Literally  translated,  it  reads,  "stand- 
ing up,  be  baptized."  Ana  means  up;  stas,  standing. 
Paul  had  been  prostrate  on  the  floor  three  days  and 
nights  crying  to  God  for  His  mercy.  Suddenly  the  won- 
derful transition  out  of  darkness  into  light,  out  of  death 
into  life,  out  of  condemnation  into  glorious  emancipation, 
supervenes ;  and  meanwhile  his  blind  eyes  are  miracu- 
lously healed  and  his  soul  flooded  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Then  Ananias  says,  "standing  up,  be  baptized."  All  the 
facts  and  environments  involve  the  conclusion  that  he 
rose  to  his  feet  and  Ananias  poured  the  limpid  rill  on 
his  head,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost. 

Were  not  the  people  immersed  in  Enon  where  there 
was  "much  water"?  Enon  is  a  Chaldaic  word  in  the 
plural  number  and  means  "springs."  Polahudata  is  the 
Greek  which  is  translated,  E.  V.,  "much  water."  The 
real  meaning  of  it  is,  "many  waters,"  as  both  the  noun 
and  the  adjective  are  in  the  plural  number,  hence  the 
conclusion  is  that  it  was  a  region  well  supplied  with 
springs.  The  argument  for  immersion  breaks  down  of 
its  own  weight  because  the  vast  crowds  who  attended 
John's  meetings  needed  vastly  more  water  for  the  people 
and  the  animals  to  drink  and  for  culinary  purposes  than 
was  required  for  immersion.  John's  meetings  anywhere 
would  need  a  good  supply  of  water,  if  he  did  not  baptize 
at  all. 

When  Nebuchadnezzar  spent  those  seven  years  roam- 
ing ad  libitum  among  the  beasts  of  the  field,  while  his 
body  was  "wet  with  the  dew  of  heaven,"  Dan.  4:33, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  through  the  Septuagint  Version 
of  the  Old  Testament  we  have  a  clear  testimony  to  affu- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  219 

sion  as  a  definition  of  "bap to,"  which  is  there  translated 
"wet."  The  Greek  ebaphcc  literally  was  "baptize  with 
the  dews  of  heaven."  We  know  that  he  was  not  im- 
mersed in  the  dews  of  heaven,  but  they  descended  on 
him. 

We  frankly  admit  that  triune  immersion  was  the  pre- 
vailing baptism  in  the  long  roll  of  the  Dark  Ages,  extend- 
ing from  the  fourth  to  the  fourteenth  century.  They 
not  only  practiced  immersion  but  gave  it  to  them 
in  a  state  of  utter  nudity  without  a  stitch  of  apparel  on 
their  bodies,  arguing  that  there  was  no  authority  for 
baptizing  the  clothes.  They  also  practiced  along  with 
it  a  lot  of  superstitious  ceremonies.  The  single  immer- 
sion is  quite  modern,  beginning  in  New  England  when 
Rodger  Williams  and  Ezekiel  Holiman  reciprocally  im- 
mersed each  other. 

Dr.  Dowie  believes  that  the  triune  immersion  runs 
back  to  the  beginning.  The  trouble  in  that  case  is  the 
utter  absence  of  proof.  The  historians  Moshiem,  Nean- 
der,  Wilson  and  Orchard  tell  us  that  immersion  was  the 
primitive  mode,  ("of  course  the  triune  immersion,  be- 
cause the  single  dip  is  so  recent  —  at  we  trace  it  back 
into  the  triune").  The  trouble  with  those  authors  is  the 
fact  that  they  are  all  modern  men  living  in  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries,  and  they  quote  no  ancient 
author,  consequently  they  merely  take  it  for  granted  and 
say  it,  while  they  do  not  prove  it.  This  is  the  way  with 
Dowie.  He  knows  that  triune  immersion  was  the  bap- 
tism through  the  long,  rolling  ages  and  thinks  it  runs 
back  to  the  apostles.  In  the  controversy  Dowie  has  de- 
cidedly the  advantage  in  the  way  of  antiquity,  but  the 
trouble  is  that  we  cannot  trace  it  beyond  the  third  cen- 


220  Autobiography   of 

tury,  when  they  were  running  into  iht.  ages  of  darkness 
and  superstition. 

The  oldest  historian  who  has  told  us  anything  about 
this  subject  is  'Lactantius  of  the  third  century  He  cer- 
tainly lived  near  enough  to  the  apostolic  age  to  have  a 
chance  to  know,  as  a  matter  of  popular  information 
transmitted  through  that  short  space.  The  apostle  John 
lived  down  through  about  thirty  years  of  the  second 
century.  Therefore  we  ought  to  have  reliable  informa- 
tion as  to  the  apostolic  practice  from  a  man  living 
in  the  third  century.  Lactantius  wrote  in  Latin, 
so  we  give  you  his  testimony  in  his  own  language : 
"IoJianes  Baptisres  tin.vit,  Petrus  tinxit,  et  Christies  apos- 
tolos  misit  ut  gentes  tingerent."  I  now  translate  this 
into  English  for  your  benefit,  "John  the  Baptist  sprinkled, 
Peter  sprinkled,  and  Christ  sent  the  apostles  that  they 
should  sprinkle  the  nations."  The  whole  controversy  of 
this  out  of  the  Latin  into  the  English  hangs  on  that  word 
"tinxit,"  which  is  from  Hugo.  We  have  the  same  word 
Anglicized  in  our  language,  in  "tinge,"  which  you  see 
simply  results  from  dropping  the  terminal  "o,"  and  adding 
"e."  You  can  now  take  Webster's  dictionary  and  satisfy 
yourself  as  to  the  meaning.  Literally,  John  the  Baptist 
tinged,  Peter  tinged,  and  Christ  sent  His  apostles  that 
they  should  tinge  the  nations. 

T  remember  that  when  I  was  studying  Latin  in  college, 
I  read  in  Horace  about  an  old  Roman  who  was  so  rich 
and  luxuriant  that  he  sprinkled  his  pavement  with  the 
best  of  wine,  in  order  to  laden  the  air  with  a  delicious 
aroma,  and  this  word  "tingo"  was  there  used.  You 
know  it  could  not  be  construed  to  mean  immersion  in 
that  construction. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  221 

But  after  all  our  researches  in  history,  secular  and  ec- 
clesiastical, the  Bible  itself  must  settle  this  and  all  other 
questions.  The  hypothesis  assumed  by  some  immersion- 
ists  that  baptizo  has  no  other  meaning,  is  utterly  unten- 
able. Origen,  the  greatest  classical  scholar  in  the  Church 
in  the  third  century,  whose  father  and  grandfather  had 
both  preached  and  suffered  martyrdom,  uses  this  word 
baptizo  to  describe  the  water  on  Elijah's  altar  on  Mount 
Carmel,  when  he  refuted  the  prophets  of  Baal. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  immerse  was  perhaps  the 
most  prominent  pagan  meaning  of  the  word.  But  you 
must  remember  that  when  the  great  universal  language, 
the  most  learned  ever  known,  the  acme  of  Grecian  learn- 
ing, was  selected  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  reveal  His  pre- 
cious truth,  many  words  at  once  received  asnew  meaning; 
e.  g.,  theos,  "god,"  in  all  the  writings  of  the  Greek 
authors,  who  were  an  exceedingly  religious  people,  as 
Paul  well  said  on  the  Areopagus,  not  as  the  English 
Version  has  it,  "too  superstitious."  Therefore  the  word 
theos  was  as  common  in  their  writing  as  God  is  in  ours, 
yet  this  word  never  did  mean  our  blessed  and  true  God, 
who  is  the  subject  of  the  Bible,  of  whom  they  were  ut- 
terly ignorant,  but  when  they  wrote  theos  they  meant 
some  of  their  gods,  who  were  really  idols.  Therefore  if 
we  would  stick  to  the  pagan  meaning  of  theos,  we  would 
mean  Jupiter,  Apollo,  Mercury,  or  some  other  Grecian 
divinity  who  was  nothing  but  an  idol. 

I  could  give  you  many  similar  illustrations,  showing 
you  that  the  words  of  this  great  and  learned  heathen 
language,  the  Greek,  received  a  different  meaning,  or 
rather  a  modified  meaning,  when  they  were  used  to  reveal 
the  precious  truths  of  God.     We  must  let  the   Bible  be 


222  Autobiography   of 

its  own  dictionary.  Good  Lord,  save  us  from  a  super- 
ficial adherence  to  dictionaries !  Do  you  not  know  that 
dictionaries  are  not  the  original  authority  of  language, 
but  the  classical  writings?  Luther,  Melancthon, 
Zwingle,  and  their  contemporaries,  had  no  dictionaries. 
They  had  not  been  made.  They  were  a  subsequent  work, 
when  noble  scholars,  by  diligent  study  of  the  classical 
writings,  saw  the  sense  in  which  the  different  authors, 
who  were  the  legitimate  exponents  of  languages,  used 
various  words.  In  this  way  the  Bible  dictionaries  are 
made,  by  a  diligent  study  of  the  Bible  itself,  and  seeing 
the  signification  in  which  every  word  is  used  by  the  in- 
spired writers.  I  have  often  known  preachers  to  get  up 
and  read  from  some  dictionary,  which  only  gives  the 
pagan  meaning  of  baptizo  and  baptisma,  which  is  not 
what  we  want  since  they  were  heathens,  and  though 
very  learned  in  Greek  philosophy  and  literature,  utterly 
ignorant  of  the  Bible  and  not  acquainted  experimentally 
with  the  God  of  the  Bible. 

We  do  not  need  dictionaries  to  study  the  Bible,  be- 
cause in  its  very  nature  it  is  a  dictionary  within  itself, 
and  the  only  one  in  the  world  that  has  any  authority 
in  the  way  of  expounding  Bible  truth.  The  word  "bible" 
is  the  Greek  "biblos,"  and  simply  means  a  book.  Thus 
our  Bible,  by  way  of  pre-eminence,  is  named,  "the  Book," 
therefore  it  is  its  own  authority  on  everything.  Of 
course,  subordinate  and  collateral  authorities  are  val- 
uable and  edifying ;  yet  when  the  Bible  speaks,  they  must 
all  be  silent. 

As  the  Roman  Empire  was  the  upholder  of  ancient 
civilization,  when  the  Barbarians,  Goths,  Huns,  Vandals, 
and  Heruli,  after  a  three  hundred  years'  war,  succeeded 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  223 

in  her  destruction,  the  Barbarians  took  the  world,  bring- 
ing in  the  dismal  night  of  a  thousand  years  known  in  his- 
tory as  the  "Dark  Ages,"  from  the  fourth  to  the  four- 
teenth century.  Of  course  the  Church  went  into  bar- 
barism, and  was  literally  inundated  with  superstition  and 
ignorance,  e.  g.,  a  preacher  got  up  in  his  pulpit  on  Sun- 
day morning  and  began  his  sermon  by  crowing  like  a 
rooster  to  wake  up  all  the  people  to  hear  him  preach. 

They  then  immersed  people  three  times,  with  a  lot 
of  superstitious  ceremonies  running  on  for  days.  When 
we  undertake  to  plow  through  the  rubbish  of  the 
Dark  Ages  and  get  back  to  Bible  times,  we  quickly  run 
into  a  fog  bank,  out  of  which  we  never  escape.  There- 
fore the  true  plan  is  to  take  the  blessed  Bible  and  be 
satisfied  with  it  in  everything,  always  rejoicing  in  God, 
and  not  in  Church  rites  or  anything  else  but  our  wonder- 
ful Savior  Himself,  who,  single-handed  and  alone,  has 
brought  to  us  this  wonderful  salvation,  so  rich  and  sweet, 
full  and  free. 

"Brother  Godbey,  does  not  Romans  sixth  teach  im- 
mersion?" We  have  the  same  Scripture  by  the  same 
author  in  Colossians  second  chapter.  As  these  are  really 
the  strongholds  of  immersion,  which  all  of  its  advocates 
emphasize  constantly  as  their  indefatigable  Gibraltar, 
therefore  we  should  examine  these  Scriptures  very  care- 
fully, all  the  time  soliloquizing  like  little  Samuel,  "Speak, 
Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth."  The  great  importance  of 
entire  sanctification  consists  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the 
only  experience  that  can  utterly  kill  out  old  deep-rooted 
prejudice,  and  make  us  perfectly  limber  in  the  hands  of 
the  Lord.  N.  B.  Prejudice  is  so  mean,  wicked,  and 
Satanic,  that  we  ought  to  watch  and  pray  lest  the  small- 


224  Autobiography   of 

est  vestige  of  it  may  linger  down  in  the  deep  interior  of 
our  spiritual  organism.  The  word  is  from 'the  Latin, 
pre,  beforehand,  and  judicium,  judgment;  therefore  it 
means  a  judgment  delivered  before  you  hear  the  evi- 
dence. I  heard  of  a  judge  who  said  he  always  made  up 
his  decision  when  he  heard  one  side  of  the  evidence,  be- 
cause if  he  waited  to  hear  the  other  side  he  would  get  so 
puzzled  that  he  would  not  know  how  to  decide.  The 
Holy  Ghost,  with  His  wonderful  Word  and  penetrating 
illuminations,  is  the  greatest  revolutionist  in  all  the 
world.  Truly  He  turns  the  blackest  midnight  into 
brightest  noonday.  Therefore  let  Him  have  His  way 
with  your  mind  and  spirit  and  once  for  all  let  us  briefly 
examine  these  Scriptures ;  meanwhile  we  are  deaf  to 
every  other  voice. 

( i )  The  Scriptures  describing  this  wonderful  tran- 
saction are  purely  spiritual.  There  is  not  a  mention  of, 
nor  even  an  indirect  allusion  to,  anything  physical  or 
material.  There  is  nothing  said  of  water  nor  of  the 
human  body.  This  wonderful  transaction  crucifies  old 
Adam  and  buries  him  forever  into  the  death  of  Christ, 
which  is  but  another  name  for  the  great  vicarious,  sub- 
stitutionary atonement  wrought  by  our  wonderful  Savior 
for  the  redemption  of  the  whole  world,  from  sin,  death, 
and  Hell.  The  omnipotent  agency  by  which  the  mighty 
work  is  wrought  is  here  denominated  baptism.  No 
human  being  who  has  not  water  on  the  brain,  (and  re- 
member, hydrocephalus  is  a  most  fatal  disease),  can  see 
one  drop  of  water  in  this  whole  translation.  God  for- 
bid that  we  should  be  wise  above  what  is  written.  In 
this  wonderful  transaction,  our  old  man  is  crucified  and 
buried    into   His    death    and   left   there    forever.      If   he 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  225 

should  from  Satan  receive  the  resurrection  power,  the 
last  state  of  that  poor  soul  is  worse  than  the  first.  There- 
fore it  should  be  our  everlasting  vigilance  and  prayer  to 
keep  him  buried  deep  into  His  death,  i.  e.,  forever  lost  in 
the  felicitous  oblivion  of  the  great  vicarious  atonement, 
where  all  sin  must  be  buried,  otherwise  it  will  be  buried 
in  Hell  fire,  serving  as  Satan's  millstone  to  drag  us  down, 
and  eternally  sinking  us  into  deeper  depths. 

(2)  The  identification  of  "burial"  in  these  Scriptures 
with  "baptism"  can  only  be  the  conclusion  of  a  most 
superficial  examination.  It  says,  "we  are  buried  by  bap- 
tism," (Romans),  and  "in  baptism,"  (Colossians).  These 
two  statements  are  precisely  synonymous.  Therefore  in- 
stead of  identifying  baptism  and  the  burial,  which  the  im- 
mersionists  do,  i.  c,  they  tell  us  the  baptism  is  the  burial, 
the  Holy  Spirit  tells  us  that  the  baptism  is  the  agent  by 
which  we  are  buried,  i.  e.,  the  baptism  instead  of  being 
the  burial  is  the  undertaker,  who  digs  the  graAfe  and 
buries  the  corpse  (old  Adam),  and  leaves  it  there  for 
the  grass  to  grow  green  over  it  forever,  as  the  resurrec- 
tion of  old  Adam  would  be  certain  damnation.  There  is 
a  resurrection  in  this  wonderful  transaction,  but  it  is  the 
new  creature,  created  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
regeneration,  and  hitherto  encumbered  with  the  old  body 
of  sin,  which  having  been  crucified  in  burial  forever, 
this  new  creature  is  resurrected,  to  walk  in  newness  of 
life  forever.  As  we  learn  in  these  Scriptures  (Colos- 
Mans)  this  resurrection  is  not  by  physical  power,  but  by 
the  very  same  omnipotent  arm  that  raised  up  Christ  from 
the  dead.  Few  men  in  the  world  have  immersed  more 
people  than  your  humble  servant.  I  always,  when  put- 
ting them  down  into  the  liquid  grave,  sinking  them  be- 


226  Autobiography   op 

neath  the  yielding  wave,  found  it  necessary  to  raise 
them  up  l)y  the  muscular  power  of  my  left  arm.  My  last 
exercise  was  in  the  holy  Jordan.  Now  you  see  the  burial 
is  not  physical,  appertaining  to  the  human  body,  but 
spiritual,  crucified  old  Adam  being  the  subject.  As  the 
resurrection  is  not  physical  by  human  power,  but  purely 
spiritual,  as  it  says,  by  the  power  which  raised  up  Christ 
from  the  dead,  therefore  we  know  that  the  burial  is  by 
that  same  omnipotent  power.  Long  habituation  to  hear- 
ing a  superficial,  materialistic  pseudo-gospel,  has  so  cul- 
tured many  people  that  when  they  see  baptism  in  the 
Bible  they  always  think  it  means  the  ordinance  with 
water.  I  have  heard  preachers  confidently  quote,  "So 
many  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ,  have  put  on 
Christ,"  enforcing  on  the  people  that  it  indubitably  means 
water  baptism,  which  is  utterly  untrue ;  to  be  baptized 
is  one  thing,  and  to  be  baptized  into  Christ  is  quite 
another.  Baptism  has  but  one  meaning  and  that  is  a 
purification,  John  3  :  25  ;  Luke  1 1 :  58,  59,  and  other  cita- 
tions, we  could  conveniently  give.  The  ordinance  of 
water  is  a  ceremonial  purification,  but  the  baptism  which 
Jesus  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire  is  the  only 
actual  and  real  purification.  Therefore  this  is  the  bap- 
tism that  puts  us  in  Christ,  which  water  baptism  is  utterly 
incompetent  to  do. 

(3)  You  see  in  these  Scriptures  describing  this  won- 
derful transaction,  (Col.)  that  baptism  is  identical  with 
circumcision.  If  you  will  examine  you  will  see  clearly 
for  yourself  that  the  baptism  is  in  both  grammatical  and 
logical  apposition  with  circumcision,  and  therefore  pre- 
cisely identical.  If  it  were  water  baptism  and  physical 
circumcision,   of   course   they     would    not   be    identical. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  227 

but  in  opposition  either  with  the  other.  How  do 
we  know  that  this  is  spiritual  circumcision?  Because 
Paul  says  it  is  the  circumcision  made  without  hands. 
Now  since  you  see  beyond  the  possibility  of  question  the 
identity  of  the  circumcision  and  baptism,  therefore  the 
baptism  is  spiritual  and  not  physical.  Paul  says  the 
circumcision  is  made  without  hands,  and  with  the  same 
breath,  that  the  baptism  is"  administered  without  hands. 
Jesus  is  our  wonderful  Healer.  If  you  have  that  fatal 
malady,  hydrocephalus,  i.  e.,  water  on  the  brain,  turn 
it  over  to  Him  that  He  may  heal  you  now  lest  you  die. 
Do  you  not  see  that  the  conclusion  that  this  means  an 
immersion  in  water  is  taken  from  the  mere  jingle  of  the 
words,  with  a  luminous  analysis  of  the  context? 

(4)  In  the  clear  light  of  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit,  the 
author  of  the  precious  Word,  and  especially  when  cor- 
roborated by  your  own  happy  experience  in  your  heart, 
these  Scriptures  do  loom  up  so  beautiful,  bright  and 
glorious,  that  you  cannot  fail  to  see  the  grand  harmony 
of  this  wonderful  transaction  in  all  its  phases  and  ram- 
ifications. Then  you  say,  "Brother  Godbey,  I  see  clearly 
that  this  is  all  spiritual,  without  mention  or  allusion  to 
the  human  body,  water  or  any  other  physical  entity. 
But  since  the  spiritual  has  the  burial,  should  we  not  bury 
the  people  when  we  baptize  them  with  water?  Does  it 
not  follow  from  this  that  the  mode  of  spiritual  baptism 
is  immersion?"  We  must  answer  positively  in  the  nega- 
tive, because  God's  Word  forever  settles  the  mode  of 
spiritual  baptism,  Acts  2:  17,  "I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit 
upon  all  flesh."  Verily  you  cannot  read  your  Bible  at 
all  without  knowing  that  the  mode  of  spiritual  baptism 
is  affusion  invariably.     The  Savior  pours  His  Spirit  on 


228  Autobiography    op 

the  human  spirit,  thereby  purifying  that  spirit  from  de- 
pravity, which  is  "old  Adam/'  which  this  baptism  cru- 
cifies and  destroys,  the  body  of  sin.  Thus  this  old  dead 
body  is  buried  into  "His  death"  and,  never  resurrecting, 
leaves  it  there  forever;  while  the  resurrection,  as 
you  see,  brings  up  the  "new  man"  to  walk  in  newness 
of  life,  and  is  wrought  by  the  same  power  that  raised 
Christ  from  the  dead. 

(5)  The  burial  is  simply  the  normal  counterpart  of 
the  metaphor,  which  represents  sin  as  a  person,  i.  e.,  the 
old  man,  and  its  destruction  by  baptism,  which  means  a 
purification,  as  the  crucifixion  of  that  old  man  and  the 
annihilation  of  his  body.  Of  course  as  a  logical  sequence 
follows  the  burial.  Oh,  what  a  grand  and  glorious  de- 
scription of  our  Lord's  mighty  work  is  the  expurgation 
of  sin  forever  out  of  the  heart !  Here  it  is  personified 
by  the  "old  man"  who  is  crucified  and  sepulchred  for- 
ever; the  burial  being  the  normal  counterpart  of  the 
death  which  is  superinduced  by  crucifixion.  Immediately 
preceding  this  wonderful  description  of  sin's  destruction 
and  eternal  elimination,  we  have  a  clear  revelation  in 
that  powerful  triple  compound  (Col.)  "apekdusic,"  from 
apo,  clear  away,  ik,  off,  and  dus,  to  put  on  as  a  coat. 
Therefore  we  have  its  grand  meaning  in  the  glorious 
reality  that  the  old  man  of  sin,  that  we  had  long  worn 
as  a  garment,  is  not  only  put  off,  but  thrown  utterly 
away  beyond  the  North  Pole,  so  he  can  never  get  back 
to  trouble  us  any  more.  This  mighty  work  is  wrought 
by  the  baptism  which  our  Savior  gives  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  fire. 

Paul  was  a  man  of  greatest  intellect  and  most  profound 
learning,  having  graduated  both  in  the  Greek  colleges 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  229 

of  Tarsus,  and  the  Hebrew  Academies  of  Jerusalem. 
Therefore  his  masterly  use  of  that  wonderful  Greek 
language,  the  strongest  in  the  world,  as  well  as  the  most 
vivacious  and  versatile,  as  God  had  purposely  prepared 
it  for  the  propagation  of  His  Word  into  all  the  earth, 
is,  in  the  good  providence  of  God,  to  all  Bible  students 
transcendently  edifying  and  ineffably  delightful.  It  is 
felicitiously  used  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  its  infallible  Author, 
for  the  illumination  of  all  true  hearts  who  are  delighted 
to  sit  meekly  and  lowly  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  while  He 
teaches  them  the  deep  things  of  God  and  the  wonderful 
things  of  the  kingdom. 

(6)  In  these  Scriptures  (Col.)  we  find  this  wonder- 
ful transaction  of  entire  sanctification,  wrought  by  the 
baptism  which  Jesus  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire, 
anteceded  by  the  bold  affirmation ;  "In  Him  dwelleth  all 
the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily;  for  you  are  complete 
in  Him,  who  is  the  head  of  all  government  and  author- 
ity." In  these  bold  climacteric  affirmations,  you  see  our 
wonderful  Christ,  who  is  sitting  on  the  rgiht  hand  of  the 
Father,  and  pleading  our  cause,  really  to  us  verifies  the 
glorious  heavenly  Trinity  in  His  own  personal  writing. 
We  are  complete  in  Him  alone,  and  do  not  need  ecclesias- 
tical ordinances,  nor  ministeral  manipulations  of  any  kind 
to  consummate  our  completeness,  as  we  have  it  all  in 
Him  alone. 

In  His  omniscient,  omnipotent  and  omnipresent  inter- 
cessions for  every  son  and  daughter  of  Adam's  ruined 
race,  pursuant  to  the  wonderful  and  perfect  vicarious, 
substitutionary  atonement  which  He  made  with  His  own 
blood  on  the  cross  of  Calvary,  He  is  every  moment  ready 
and  waiting  to  settle  the  awful  sin  problem  in  every  heart 


230  Autobiography   0? 

by  a  radical  expurgation.  He  is  this  moment  ready  to 
pour  His  Spirit  upon  you,  thus  baptizing  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  fire.  Sin  is  your  own  trouble,  which 
here,  in  the  bold  imagery  of  Paul,  is  personified  in  the 
old  man  (Rom.),  whom  Jesus  crucifies  till  he  is  utterly 
dead  and  his  life  is  forever  exterminated,  and  then  buries 
into  His  own  death  and  leaves  him  there  forever. 

"There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood, 
Drawn  from  Emmanuel's  veins, 
And  sinners  plunged  beneath  that  flood, 
Lose  all  their  guilty  stains. 

"The  dying  thief  rejoiced  to  see 

That  fountain  in  his  day; 
And  there  may  I,  though  vile  as  he, 
Wash  all  my  sins  away. 

"Dear  dying  Lamb,  Thy  precious  blood 
Shall  never  lose  its  power, 
Till  all  the  ransomed  Church  of  God 
Is  saved  to  sin  no  more." 

Here  our  glorified  Lord,  in  whom  dwelleth  all  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily,  having  completely  and 
forever  conquered  sin  death  and  Hell,  is  ready  freely  to 
dispense  the  full  benefits  of  His  wonderful  vicarious 
atonement  to  every  humble  believing  soul.  Thus  He  ad- 
ministers a  complete  expurgation  of  all  iniquity  of  the 
heart,  crucifying  the  old  man  of  sin  and  sepulchering 
him  forever;  giving  you  the  victory  world  without  end 
and  leaving  us  all  nothing  to  do  but  shout, 

"I  have  found  a  friend  in  Jesus ; 

He's  everything  to  me; 
He's  the  fairest  of  ten  thousand  to  my  soul ! 

The  'Lily  of  the  Valley,'  in  Him  alone  I  see, 
All  I  need  to  cleanse  and  make  me  fully  whole. 

In  sorrow  He's  my  comfort,  in  trouble  He's  my  stay; 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  231 

He  tells  me  every  care  on  Him  to  roll ; 

He's  the  'Lily  of  the  Valley,'  the  bright  and  morning  Star ; 
He's  the  fairest  of  ten  thousand  to  my  soul ! 

'He  all  my  grief  has  taken,  and  all  my  sorrows  borne; 

In  temptation  He's  my  strong  and  mighty  tower; 
I've  all  for  Him  forsaken,  I've  all  my  idols  torn 

From  my  heart,  and  now  He  keeps  me  by  His  power. 
Though  all  the  world  forsake  me,  and  Satan  tempts  me  sore, 

Through  Jesus  I  shall  safely  reach  the  goal ; 
He's  the  'Lily  of  the  Valley,'  the  bright  and  morning  Star; 

He's  the  fairest  of  ten  thousand  to  my  soul ! 

"He'll  never,  never  leave  me,  nor  yet  forsake  me  here, 

While  I  live  by  faith  and  do  His  blessed  will ; 
A  wall  of  fire  about  me,  I've  nothing  now  to  fear; 

With  His  manna  He  my  hungry  soul  shall  fill. 
When  crowned  at  last  in  glory,  I'll  see  His  blessed  face, 

Where  rivers  of  delight  shall  ever  roll, 
He's  the  'Lily  of  the  Valley,'  the  bright  and  morning  Star; 

He's  the  fairest  of  ten  thousand  to  my  soul." 

"Oh,  Brother  Godbey,  you  utterly  take  immersion  out 
of  the  Bible."  You  are  entirely  mistaken.  2  Cor.  5 :  17 
gives  us  all  the  authority  we  want  to  immerse  all  the 
people  in  the  world,  if  they  get  saved  and  desire  it. 
That  Scripture  is,  "Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there 
is  liberty."  God  has  made  plenty  of  water ;  if  He  is  not 
stingy  with  it,  we  ought  not  to  be.  My  infant  baptism 
was  a  great  blessing  to  me,  fortifying  me  against  the 
vices  and  follies  which  generally  blacken  and  ruin  child- 
hood and  youth.  I  was  the  only  boy  in  the  neighborhood 
who  had  received  it,  but  the  balance,  almost  without  a 
single  exception,  cursed  like  demons  and  plunged  head- 
long into  wickedness.  The  Campbellite  preachers,  the 
pastors  of  their  parents,  were  constantly  fighting  infant 
baptism.  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  knozv  them."  Instead 
of  participating  in  their  wickedness,  I  faithfully  warned 
them   of  their   impending   danger.     That   baptism   was 


232  Autobiography   of 

worth  more  to  me  than  gold  and  silver,  which  my  father 
and  mother  did  not  possess  and  could  not  give  me.  My 
patrimony  did  not  consist  of  a  nickel,  yet  it  left  me  the 
princely  fortune  of  my  dedication  to  God  and  the  faithful 
instructions  and  restraints  characteristic  of  a  godly  home. 
When  I  reached  sixteen  and  God  gloriously  converted 
my  soul,  and  I  soon  got  convicted  for  the  victory  of 
full  salvation  and  knew  not  how  to  seek  it,  doing  my 
best,  leaving  no  stone  unturned,  I  constrained  the  M.  E. 
preacher  to  give  me  immersion.  I  am  so  glad  he  did  it, 
because  it  satisfied  me  that  more  water  was  not  what  I 
needed,  but  more  grace.  It  actually  gave  me  the  victory 
over  water,  and  Church  rites  of  every  form  and  phase, 
convincing  me  that  God  alone  could  satisfy  my  longing 
soul. 

In  the  absence  of  all  human  help  in  the  way  of  preach- 
ing and  testimony,  I  sought  sanctification  for  nineteen 
years;  then  Jesus  gave  me  what  I  had  sought  in  the 
water  and  over  hill  and  dale,  mountain  and  plain.  Glory 
to  His  name,  I  found  it  all  in  Him  alone !  If  you  say, 
"Brother  Godbey  is  opposed  to  immersion,"  you  will  treat 
me  unkindly  and  misrepresent  me.  God  has  not  re- 
stricted us  in  this  matter,  but  given  us  glorious  and  per- 
fect liberty.  If  you  have  a  conviction  for  it,  do  not 
hesitate  to  go  at  once  and  receive  it.  I  have  known  mul- 
titudes of  people  immersed  by  men  whom  I'm  satisfied 
did  not  know  God.  They  denounced  and  mocked  experi- 
mental religion,  which  no  Christian  can  do,  and  exhorted 
the  people  to  come  and  receive  immersion  at  their  hands 
for  the  remission  of  their  sins.  If  you  desire  immersion, 
go  at  once  and  receive  it  at  the  hands  of  some  man  whom 
God  has  saved  and  called  to  preach  the  Gospel. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  233 

To  be  candid  before  God  and  the  world,  I  have  but  one 
objection  to  immersion,  and  that  I  feel  it  my  duty  to 
tell  you.  In  my  observation  I  am  convinced  that  it  trends 
to  hydrolatry,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  seductive  form 
of  idolatry  incidental  to  the  Church  of  God,  e.  g.,  the 
Campbellites  and  Mormons,  who  are  downright  hydrola- 
ters,  positively  preach  the  essentiality  of  water  baptism 
for  the  salvation  of  the  soul ;  they  are  uncompromising 
immersionists. 

Baptism  is  not  an  institution  of  the  Gospel  dispensa- 
tion, as  many  think,  but  of  the  Mosaic,  and  practiced  by 
Moses  himself,  when  with  his  own  hands  he  baptized  all 
the  people,  (three  millions)  at  the  tabernacle  door,  Heb. 
9:10-19.  Of  course  there  is  a  vast  difference  between 
the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian  dispensations.  The  former 
was  literally  inundated  with  ceremonies,  millions  of  birds 
and  beasts  bleeding  on  their  altars,  symbolic  of  the 
blessed  Christ  dying  on  the  cross,  and  multitudinous 
watery  ablutions  (baptismos)  typifying  the  mighty  works 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  latter  has  nothing  but  the  simple 
ceremonies  of  the  water  baptism  and  the  Eucharist.  Mil- 
lions of  Jews  were  baptized  thousands  of  times  during 
their  lives,  as  they  had  to  receive  it  every  time  they 
contracted  ceremonial  defilement  before  they  were  allowed 
even  to  enter  the  holy  campus,  much  less  go  into  the 
holy  temple.  All  churches  in  by-gone  ages  have  gradu- 
ally grieved  the  Holy  Spirit  and  drifted  away  into  idol- 
atry in  some  form  or  other. 

The  American  Church  has  not  only  gone  largely  into 
hydrolatry,  ecclesiolatry,  eucharolatry,  pyrolatry,  hemer- 
olatry,  i.  e.,  day  worship,  e.  g.,  Seventh-Day  Aclventism; 
but  some  of  them  have  actually  gone  into  paean  idolatry. 


234  Autobiography   of 

i.  e.,  Buddhism.  I  am  personally  acquainted  with  a 
Methodist  preacl  jr  and  his  members  who  have  gone  into 
it  and  are  preaching  it.  /vt  San  Diego,  Cal.,  they  have 
built  a  splendid  temple  and  dedicated  it  to  Buddha,  and 
are  preparing  to  build  one  in  Los  Angeles.  Our  only 
anchorage  competent  to  prevent  this  fearful  drifting  is 
in  Jesus,  taking  Him  for  everything,  and  contenting  our- 
selves with  what  He  gives  us.  When  you  lose  sight  of 
everything  but  God  alone,  and  sink  away  into  Him, 
then  He  gives  you  His  own  liberty,  which  is  freedom  to 
do  everything  good  and  nothing  bad.  I  can  frankly  con- 
fess that  I  can  see  nothing  wrong  in  receiving  water 
baptism  as  often  as  you  desire  and  in  the  way  you  prefer. 

Of  course  my  Biblical  exegesis  on  this  subject,  as  well 
as  all  others,  can  make  no  compromise  with  what  God 
has  revealed.  While  after  a  long  life  of  constant  study, 
with  all  the  benefits  of  a  classical  education,  reading  the 
Word  in  the  inspired  original  with  readiness  and  dis- 
pensing with  all  translations ;  in  the  providence  of  God, 
visiting  the  Holy  Land  three  times  and  investigating 
everything  to  my  utmost  ability ;  I  am  perfectly  satisfied 
that  the  Bible  baptisms  were  all  affusions  in  both  dispen- 
sations ;  yet  I  have  no  controversy  with  my  immersion 
brethren.  During  my  entire  ministerial  life  I  have  faith- 
fully immersed  all  who  made  application  to  me  and  in- 
variably advised  all  who  had  convictions  for  it  to  go 
ahead  and  receive  it.  It  is  certainly  perfectly  innocent, 
if  any  one  is  stickleristic  either  for  affusion  or  immer- 
sion. Oh,  how  frequently  when  I  have  put  them  down 
in  the  river  have  I  seen  the  rolling  billows  pour  down 
upon  them. 

The  only  criticism  you  can  offer  immersion  is  simply 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  235 

that  of  superfluity;  which  is  certainly  an  objection.  This 
is  the  glorious  felicity  of  full  salvation.  It  gives  us  the 
wonderful,  perfect  freedom  of  God  Himself,  who  is  free 
to  do  everything  good  and  nothing  bad.  Besides,  it  fills 
us  with  perfect  love  so  that  we  love  God's  dear  children 
who  differ  from  us  quite  as  dearly  as  those  who  agree 
with  us. 

In  this  wonderful  salvation,  while  we  must  make  no 
compromise  on  essentials,  but  must  heroically  contend 
for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  sparing  nothing 
where  life  and  salvation  are  involved ;  yet  in  all  non- 
essential ecclesiastical  matters  we  have  boundless  liberty. 
This  probationary  life  is  a  constant  battle  against  sin 
and  Satan,  occupying  all  of  our  time,  so  that  we  have 
no  ammunition  to  waste  on  the  air.  Satan  is  always 
manceuvering  to  get  the  children  of  God  into  a  fight  with 
one  another  simply  in  order  to  keep  them  from  fighting 
him.  It  is  wonderfully  sweet  to  be  perfectly  free  from 
all  ecclesiastical  shackels.  That  does  not  mean  that  we 
become  church  fighters,  we  have  no  time  for  that.  Souls 
are  too  valuable,  time  too  short  and  eternity  too  long 
for  us  to  waste  an  ounce  of  ammunition  shooting  to  and 
fro  at  one  another.  In  this  book,  as  elsewhere,  I  have 
not  spared  Heaven's  artillery  where  life  and  salvation 
are  involved ;  but  on  this  problem  of  the  mere  manner 
in  which  water  baptism  is  administered,  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  revelation  in  which  we  desire  to  know  the  facts 
revealed  in  this  blessed  and  infallible  volume  of  truth, 
so  edifying  and  precious  to  me,  as  a  matter  of  erudition 
and  edification.  Therefore  we  enjoy  these  explorations 
through  the  precious  oracles  with  which  God  has  favored 


236  Autobiography    of 

us,  that  we  may  have  an  abundant  supply  of  intellectual 
and  spiritual  pabulum. 

Let  me,  in  fatherly  kindness,  make  an  earnest  appeal  to 
all  who,  in  the  providence  of  God,  may  read  these  pages 
that  you  beware  of  a  critical,  fault-finding  spirit,  which 
is  grievous  to  God  and  calculated  to  alienate  His  Holy 
Spirit,  without  whose  guidance,  illuminations  and  revela- 
tions in  the  understanding  of  His  precious  Word  and 
providence  we  cannot  successfully  fight  this  probationary 
battle  and  run  the  heavenly  race  which  is  set  before  us. 
If  you  have  a  conviction  for  immersion,  avail  yourself 
of  the  kind  service  of  one  of  God's  called  and  sent  preach- 
ers and  fully  satisfy  your  conscience,  but  do  not  criticise 
your  brothers  and  sisters  who  have  not  received  those 
convictions,  as  in  so  doing  you  will  certainly  grieve  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Never  fail  to  warn  them  of  anything 
even  savoring  of  evil  and  to  exhort  them  to  the  greatest 
possible  diligence  and  heroism  in  pursuit  of  everything 
which  is  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  God.  Paul  said, 
"Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant?  to 
his  own  master  he  standeth  or  falleth.  But  he  shall 
stand;  for  God  is  able  to  make  him  stand."  Be  sure 
you  do  not  discount  the  godly  Quaker  who  has  no  con- 
victions for  water  baptism  in  any  way.  You  see  he  is 
living  the  life  of  an  humble,  devout  saint  of  God. 
Therefore  leave  him  in  the  hands  of  God  ;  neither  criti- 
cise nor  grieve  him.  Nor  dare  to  burlesque  your  brother 
who,  under  conscientious  conviction,  has  received  triune 
immersion  at  the  hands  of  some  Dowieite.  Thousands 
and  millions  who  have  received  the  same  during  the  long 
roll  of  the  Middle  Ages  are  now  in  glorv.  Do  not  dis- 
count him  because  of  his  peculiarities.    These  little  non- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  237 

essentials,  which  differentiate  the  people  of  God,  are  to 
wield  no  influence  whatever  in  the  loving  appreciation  in 
which  you  are  to  hold  one  another.  If  you  have  a  chance 
to  attend  an  immersion,  though  you  may  never  have  re- 
ceived it,  nor  now  have  a  conviction  for  it,  ask  God  to 
make  it  a  blessing  to  you,  so  that  you  may  rejoice  with 
your  brothers  and  sisters.  God  is  so  anxious  to  bless  us 
that  He  avails  Himself  of  all  occasions  to  reveal  His 
unutterable  love  and  mercy  in  pouring  out  His  Spirit 
in  showers  of  blessing  on  His  dear  people  whom  He  has 
redeemed  by  the  blood  of  His  precious  and  only  Son. 
Do  not  argue  with  one  another  on  baptism  or  anything 
else.  Freely  investigate  the  precious  Word  together  and 
help  one  another;  "always  esteeming  others  better  than 
yourselves."  Make  no  effort  to  dissuade  any  of  your 
brothers  and  sisters  from  receiving  the  baptism  by  im- 
mersion. Tell  them  to  walk  in  the  light  and  govern  them- 
selves accordingly;  then  you  pray  for  them.  "It  is  very 
dangerous  to  make  much  of  non-essentials.  We  are  to 
make  everything  of  Jesus,  taking  Him  for  everything, 
and  wearing  everything  else  as  a  loose  garment.  When 
you  get  to  criticising  your  brothers  and  sisters,  remem- 
ber you  need  a  shower  of  fire  on  you  to  burn  up  the 
critic's  cap. 

As  a  matter  of  truth  and  fidelity  in  writing  my 
biography,  I  have  freely  delivered  to  you  an  epitome  of 
what  God  by  His  Word,  Spirit  and  providence  has  de- 
livered to  me.  If  you  love  me  the  less  for  so  doing,  I 
can  only  say  I  love  you  the  more.  If  I  have  administered 
heavy  blows  with  the  sledge  hammer  of  revealed  truth, 
please  remember  that  they  are  all  love-licks.  I  have 
given  you  thus  briefly  the  benefit  of  my  life  of  hard  work 


238  Autobiography    01? 

and  large  opportunities  in  the  way  of  education  and 
travelling.  If  you  can  only  sink  out  of  self  into  Christ 
and  continue  to  sink  deeper  and  deeper  into  God's  glor- 
ious Divinity,  keep  humble,  meek  and  lowly  and,  like 
Jesus,  go  about  doing  good,  you  will  find  platoons  of 
guardian  angels  from  Heaven  descended,  who  will  ac- 
company you  along  the  perilous  journey  of  this  stormy 
pilgrimage.  They  will  fortify  you  against  all  of  Satan's 
pitfalls  and  ambushments,  and  meanwhile,  with  the  splen- 
dor of  their  pinions,  will  light  up  your  way  till  you  will 
realize  that  you  are  truly  walking  in  Beulah  Land  where 
the  sun  and  the  moon  both  shine  night  and  day. 

If  anybody  invites  you  to  preach  baptism  do  as  I  did 
the  last  time  they  invited  me.  I  was  far  away  in  India 
and  preaching  in  the  largest  leper  asylum  in  the  world, 
having  seven  hundred  of  those  unfortunate  sufferers  who 
are  shut  out  from  the  world  lest  they  might  transmit 
that  awful  plague,  before  me.  The  native  pastor  with 
sable  face  and  foreign  speech  through  an  interpreter 
asked  me  to  preach  on  baptism,  as  he  expected  to  follow 
my  sermon  by  administering  that  ordinance  to  about  one 
hundred  of  his  people.  I  had  no  time  to  preach  to  them 
on  water  baptism,  as  I  knew  that  had  nothing  to  do  with 
their  salvation,  but  I  gladly  accepted  his  invitation  and 
preached  to  them  about  the  baptism  which  Jesus  gives 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  and  exhorted  them  to 
make  their  full  and  eternal  consecration  and  trust  Jesus 
to  give  it  to  them.  Then  their  pastor  poured  the  limpid 
rill  on  their  heads,  thus  beautifully  symbolizing  the  bap- 
tism Jesus  gives  when  He  pours  His  Spirit  on  us.  Bap- 
tism means  a  purification.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  omni- 
potent Purifier  whom  Jesus  pours  on  you  when  He  bap- 


Kev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  239 

tizes  you.  "Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire."  Heb.  12:  18. 
The  Holy  Ghost  is  none  other  than  the  eternal  God. 
When  Jesus  pours  the  Spirit  on  you,  the  living  fire  goes 
through  you,  and  how  appropriately  we  sing  with  the 
old  Methodists, 

"Refining  fire  go  through  my  heart, 
Illuminate  my  soul ; 
Scatter  Thy  life  through  every  part, 
And  sanctify  the  whole. 

"Oh,  that  He  now  from  Heaven  might  fall, 
And  all  my  sins  consume; 
Come,  Holy  Ghost,  on  Thee  I  call, 
Spirit  of  burning,  come !" 

So  when  they  call  on  you  and  ask  you  to  preach  on 
baptism,  always  preach  on  the  baptism  which  Jesus  gives 
and  Paul  says  is  the  only  one  in  all  the  world;  the  ordin- 
ance with  water  merely  being  the  outward  sign.  In  all 
these  things  note  that  the  great  salient  point  is  to  walk 
in  the  foot-prints  of  Jesus,  meek,  humble  and  lowly,  and 
like  Him,  to  go  about  doing  good.  Again  I  entreat  you, 
do  not  argue.  Paul  says,  "the  man  of  God  shall  not 
strive."  Let  your  zeal  culminate  in  perfect  love  for  God 
and  His  people  and  all  mankind.  During  the  little  remnant 
of  my  earthly  life  I  will  certainly  pray  that  what  I  Have 
written,  pursuant  to  candor  and  veracity  in  the  faithful 
submission  of  my  biography,  and  responsive  to  the  im- 
portunate appeals  of  my  thousands  of  friends,  shall  not 
stir  up  strife.  However,  I  know  that  the  enemy  is  al- 
ways manipulating  to  clothe  the  angel,  perfect  love,  with 
the  bear  skin  so  that  his  Hell-hounds  will  chase  it. 


Chapter  VIII. 

THE  SEVENTH  DAY  ADVENTIST 
CONTROVERSY. 

All  my  eighteen  debates  were  not  with  the  Campbellites. 
I  had  one  with  a  Seventh  Day  Adventist  who  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  ago  came  from  New  York  and  began  to 
preach  at  a  rural  village  near  where  I  now  live.  That 
was  before  I  settled  there  subsequently  to  my  episcopal 
appointment  to  the  evangelistic  work,  which  took  me 
out  of  the  Conference  and  permitted  me  to  settle  in  a 
permanent  home.  His  doctrine  was  perfectly  new,  hav- 
ing never  been  heard  of  in  the  country.  The  novelty 
of  the  man  and  his  doctrine  produced  a  popular  sensation 
and  gave  him  a  splendid  hearing  by  the  people.  He 
proved  very  pugnacious  and  belligerent;  not  only  heroic- 
ally preaching  his  new  doctrine,  but  challenging  all  of 
the  preachers  to  meet  him  in  debate.  As  they  had  no 
acquaintance  with  the  teaching  of  his  Church,  and  were 
not  accustomed  to  public  disputation,  they  all  declined. 
Meanwhile  he  began  to  invite  people  to  join  his  Church. 
He  was  a  persuasive,  winning,  argumentative  and  hor- 
tatory speaker.  There  was  but  one  church  in  the  village, 
and  that  was  the  union  of  Methodists  and  Campbellites, 
both  organizations  using  the  same  house  and  alternating 
with  each  other.  The  people  began  to  join  him  and  quite 
a  revival  broke  out  under  his  preaching,  the   fruits  of 

240 


R$v.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  241 

which  were  only  marked  by  church-joining,  and  really 
made  no  effort  to  get  people  spiritually  changed,  blessed 
and  saved,  but  made  church-joining  a  great  salient  point. 
As  he  was  constantly  challenging  all  the  Methodist  and 
Baptist  preachers  and  Campbellites,  too,  since  I  had 
notoriety  as  a  debater,  they  wrote  to  me,  at  that  time 
in  a  distant  part  of  the  Conference,  asking  me  to  come 
and  debate  with  him,  and  stating  that  he  was  producing 
a  great  sensation  there  and  getting  a  heap  of  members ; 
they  could  not  see  that  it  was  for  the  glory  of  God.  I 
responded  by  acceptance.  Then  we  corresponded  and 
appointed  the  time. 

The  Seventh  Day  Adventists,  as  said  above,  had  hith- 
erto been  unknown  in  all  of  that  country.  As  I  had  been 
born  and  reared  in  Kentucky  and  never  preached  any- 
where else  except  during  the  war  period  when  I  was 
over  in  Indiana,  where  I  did  not  come  in  contact  with 
them,  therefore  I  knew  very  little  about  them.  Conse- 
quently I  went  down  to  Cincinnati  and  hunted  up  their 
books,  of  which  they  had  a  very  few  as  their  denomina- 
tion had  so  recently  been  launched.  Having  availed  my- 
self of  their  books,  I  studied  up  their  doctrines  and  thus 
prepared  to  meet  the  champion  who  had  already  spread 
terror  and  dismay  in  that  country,  so  very  boldly  and 
eloquently  preaching  a  new  doctrine  and  vociferously 
challenging  all  the  preachers  to  refute  him.  He  was 
constantly  proposing  to  give  them  half  of  the  time,  when- 
ever they  would  come  and  avail  themselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  refute  what  they  regarded  as  dangerous  error. 
On  arrival  I  took  him  aside  into  the  grove  and  pro- 
posed that  we  draw  up  propositions,  setting  his  doctrines 
clearly  before  the  people  and  at  the  same  time  taking 


242  Autobiography   o? 

positions  in  the  affirmative  and  the  negative,  so  as  to 
bring  the  whole  matter  intelligently  and  instructively 
before  the  people.  He  was  very  reluctant  to  do  it,  and 
never  consented  till  I  told  him  I  had  read  his  books  and 
knew  his  doctrines  and  was  going  to  expose  them  in  the 
time  alloted,  whether  he  would  consent  to  defend  them 
or  not.  When  he  found  that  he  really  was  in  a  dilemma 
and  had  but  one  way  out,  and  that  was  to  fight  his  way 
out,  he  acquiesced  and  we  drew  up  propositions  occupy- 
ing the  whole  week.  It  so  happened  that  he  had  divided 
both  the  Methodist  and  Campbellite  Churches  and  had 
taken  in,  as  best  I  could  learn,  the  big  end  of  both  or- 
ganizations. 

When  we  proceeded  to  organize  for  the  debate,  I  chose 
an  old  Methodist  preacher  to  serve  as  my  moderator. 
Among  his  accessions  from  the  Methodist  Church,  he 
had  taken  in  the  class-leader  with  whom  I  was  well 
acquainted,  because  I  had  once  been  pastor  of  that 
church.  The  Seventh  Day  Adventist  cause  was 
perfectly  new  in  that  country,  therefore  he  had  no 
preacher  of  his  denomination,  consequently  he  selected 
the  class-leader  to  serve  as  his  moderator;  the  two  mod- 
erators selected  an  umpire,  an  intelligent  and  influential 
gentleman. 

Then  we  proceeded  to  open  the  debate  and  the  umpire, 
having  called  "the  house  to  order  and  engaged  in  prayer, 
as  was  usual,  proceeded  to  read  the  first  proposition  in 
which  your  humble  servant  affirmed  the  immortality  of 
the  human  soul  and  Rev.  Skeel  denied  it.  This  was 
quite  a  surprise  and  shock  to  the  people.  He  had  been 
preaching  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  the  renewal  of  the 
earth,  and  His  reign  on  it,  and  other  items  of  a  similar 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  243 

character,  which  were  new  and  striking,  and  so  managed 
to  captivate  the  ear  of  the  people.  As  I  w  s  in  the 
affirmative,  of  course  I  had  the  first  speech  in  which  we 
were  limited  to  an  hour  apiece.  1  spent  my  time  proving 
from  the  Bible  the  soul's  immortality,  which  of  course 
is  easily  done.  In  the  proposition  we  used  the  word 
spirit,  synonomously  with  soul ;  simply  meaning  that 
invisible  entity  of  humanity  which  survives  the  body  and 
lives  on  through  all  eternity.  Of  course  all  the  people 
believed  everything  I  said,  because  they  all  endorsed  the 
soul's  immortality.  But  when  Mr.  Skeel  followed  me  and 
spoke  an  hour  in  the  negative,  denying  with  all  his  might 
the  soul's  immortality,  they  were  much  surprised,  as  he 
had  not  hitherto  delivered  himself  on  that  subject,  hence 
it  produced  quite  a  stir  and  commotion  in  the  mind,  all 
listening  spellbound  and  soliloquizing,  "What  can  this 
be?"  We  spent  two  days  arguing  on  the  soul's  im- 
mortality, myself  affirming  and  he  denying. 

Our  next  proposition,  which  we  took  up  the  third  day, 
was  the  subject  of  spiritual  regeneration.  He  affirmed 
that  "The  new  birth,  of  which  Jesus  speaks  in  John  3 :  5, 
will  take  place  on  the  resurrection  morn."  As  the  Ad- 
ventists  utterly  repudiate  the  existence  of  the  soul,  sep- 
arate from  the  body,  they  therefore  ignore  all  spirituality 
utterly  and  unconditionally,  until  the  body  is  raised  from 
the  dead.  This  resurrection  life  is  man's  immortality. 
This  will  only  be  given  to  those  who  are  in  Christ,  leav- 
ing the  wicked  for  utter  cremation  and  annihilation  when 
the  world  shall  be  wrapped  in  her  final  crematory  fires. 
This  resurrected  body  my  opponent  construed  to  be  the 
new  birth,  which  our  Savior  preached  to  Nicodemus. 
The  man  repudiated  the  soul's  immortality,  and  utterly 


244  Autobiography   o? 

abnegated  the  great  and  vital  doctrine  of  regeneration 
wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  a  new  heart,  a 
new  spirit,  and  a  new  creation  obtainable  and  realizable 
in  the  present  life.  His  doctrine  of  conversion  is  much 
like  that  of  the  Campbellites,  consisting  simply  of  church- 
joining  and  immersion,  claiming  that  in  this  way  we 
become  Christians,  and  will  have  a  right  to  the  immortal- 
ity which  supervenes  with  the  new  birth,  which  our  Savior 
preached  to  Nicodemus. 

When  the  people  saw  that  he  actually  not  only  denied 
the  soul's  immortality,  but  repudiated  regeneration  and  all 
spirituality,  I  just  proceeded  to  show  that  the  man  was 
an  infidel.  I  was  well  acquainted  with  infidels,  as  they 
had  preached  all  over  that  country  in  former  years. 
Therefore  the  Lord  gave  me  great  boldness,  so  I  pro- 
ceeded to  read  in  the  Second  Epistle  of  John,  "If  any 
one  comes  to  you  and  brings  not  this  doctrine,  receive 
him  not  in  your  houses,  and  do  not  bid  him  Godspeed; 
for  he  that  says  to  him  Godspeed  is  partaker  of  his  evil 
deeds."  I  made  an  awful  issue  of  it,  saying  to  them, 
"This  man  whom  I  find  to  be  an  infidel,  not  even  believ- 
ing in  the  soul's  immortality,  and  utterly  repudiating  the 
new  birth  and  all  spirituality,  has  come  to  you  and  you 
have  received  him  into  your  house,  actually  joined  his 
church  and  are  bidding  him  Godspeed ;  all  this  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  God  positively  tells  you  in  His 
Word  that  if  any  one  comes  to  you  and  does  not  bring 
this  great  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality 
and  the  regeneration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  you  are  not  to 
receive  him  into  your  house,  nor  to  bid  him  Godspeed. 
If  you  do.  you  become  partakers  of  his  evil  deeds."  Then 
I  said  to  them :   "God  has  sent  me  here  to  show  you  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  245 

awful  thing  you  have  done,  receiving  an  infidel  for  your 
preacher,  who  is  worse  than  the  heathen  in  the  fact  that 
they  believe  in  the  soul's  immortality,  but  he  rejects  it 
altogether,  and  at  the  same  time  repudiates  our  Savior's 
great  and  glorious  doctrine  of  spiritual  regeneration,  the 
new  birth  and  the  kingdom  of  God,  thus  establishing  the 
'heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  this  life.  Therefore  God  will 
put  me  on  the  witness  block  in  the  day  of  judgment  to 
testify  against  you,  if  you  do  not  repent  of  this  awful 
jnistake  and  ask  His  pardoning  mercy." 

About  that  time  the  old  class-leader,  who  was  serving 
as  Skeel's  moderator,  just  cried  out,  "Brethren,  I  have 
been  deceived  and  I  want  you  to  pray  for  me."  Then 
others  around  said  the  same.  So  we  had  to  turn  the 
debate  into  a  seeker's  meeting  to  get  the  people  reclaimed 
who  had  gone  off  after  him.  The  result  was  that  they 
all  saw  what  a  mistake  they  had  made  and  dropped  him 
like  a  hot  potato,  then  resumed  their  places  in  the 
churches.  The  Campbellite  Church  discontinued  alto- 
gether and  the  Methodists,  rebuilding  the  house,  revived 
and  live  on  to  this  day.  You  cannot  find  a  Seventh  Day 
Adventist  anywhere  about  there.  T  live  within  seven 
miles  of  that  place  and  am  satisfied  that  there  is  not  a 
single  one,  though  that  man  had  built  up  a  big  member- 
ship. I  know  no  country  anywhere  that  is  clearer  from 
that  heresy  than  Kentucky,  and  especially  all  of  that 
region. 

Thus  you  see  the  importance  of  open  investigation, 
which  we  are  enabled  to  give  the  people  in  these  public 
discussions.  Seventh  Day  Adventism  is  an  awful  infidel- 
ity, as  the  people  saw  when  that  man  was  brought  face 
to  face  with  an  opponent  and  forced  either  to  defend  his 


246  AuTOBIOCRArilY     OF 

doctrine,  which  I  had  in  the  books,  or  reject  it  publicly. 
He  chose  the  former  and  '"as  consequently  forced  to 
uncover  his  unapologizable  infidelity  to  all  of  the  people, 
and  they  said  outright  they  had  been  deceived.  Therefore 
they  dropped  him,  and  his  church  and  every  vestige  of 
his  movement  evanesced  away,  leaving  not  a  trace,  nor 
a  track. 

This  heresy  of  Seventh  Day  Adventism  is  widely 
spread  over  the  whole  country.  It  is  verily  a  soul  poison, 
destitute  of  a  solitary  redeeming  truth.  It  is  sugar- 
coated  infidelity.  Satan  very  adroitly  sugar-  ^ats  all  of 
his  pills,  so  that  people  will  take  them ;  thus  imbibing 
the  soul  poison  which  brings  certain  destruction  soon  or 
late.  How  significantly  God  says,  "My  people  perish  for 
lack  of  knowledge."  That  case  was  peculiar  in  the  fact 
that  this  heresy  was  utterly  new  and  they  had  enjoyed 
no  available  opportunities  to  study  it ;  therefore  this  able 
and  captious  preacher  lassoed  them  quickly. 

Another  point  peculiar  in  their  case  was  that  they 
were  all  acquainted  with  me  and  had  confidence  in  my 
veracity ;  so  that  when  I  lifted  the  masque  and  revealed 
the  infidel  monstrosity  they  shrank  with  horror  and  gladly 
retraced  the  steps  but  recently  taken. 

Hemerolatry,  i.  e.,  day  worship,  is  the  idolatry  peculiar 
to  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists.  They  idolize  the  Mosaic 
Sabbath,  preaching  the  holy  day  instead  of  a  holy  heart, 
without  which  all  are  forever  lost,  day  or  no  day.  "Sab- 
bath" is  a  Hebrew  word  and  means  "rest."  It  is  the 
perfect  rest  which  the  sanctified  soul  receives  in  Jesus. 
Therefore  with  holy  people  all  days  are  holy.  The  first 
Christians  were  all  Jews,  and  consequently  kept  both 
of  the  Sabbaths,  the  Mosaic  and  the  Christian,  as  long 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  247 

as  they  lived.  The  Gentile  Christians  never  did  keep 
the  Mosaic  Sabbath  and  were  not  required  to  do  it,  Acts 
15,  but  they  did  keep  the  first  day  of  the  week,  Acts 
20:7;  1  Cor.  2:  16.  The  Seventh  Day  Adventists  tell 
us  the  Pope  changed  the  Sabbath.  It  is  easy  to  tell  it, 
but  they  cannot  prove  it,  because  there  never  was  a  Pope 
until  the  seventh  century,  and  the  disciples  kept  the  first 
day  of  the  week  without  a  break  from  the  Lord's  resur- 
rection. Confirmation  of  this  we  have  in  Roman  history 
in  abundance.  Sallust,  Seutonius  and  Pliny,  who  lived  and 
wrote  in  the  first  century  of  the  Christian  Era  and  faith- 
fully chronicled  all  the  notable  current  events,  though 
pagans  themselves,  manifested  great  candor  and  veracity 
which  I  cannot  doubt  in  their  narration  of  the  coming 
and  abiding  of  Christianity  in  their  midst.  They  pro- 
nounced it  a  strange  frenzy  which  its  votaries  in  some 
mysterious  way  had  the  power  to  transmit ;  observing 
that  frequently  they  communicated  it  to  their  execution- 
ers, so  that  they  turned  Christians  and  submitted  to  the 
same  martyrdom  Those  historians  proceed  to  describe 
the  prosecution  of  a  Christian  pending  martyrdom,  and 
state  that  the  magistrate  always  asked ;  "Dominicum 
servasti?" — "Hast  thou  kept  the  Lord's  day?"  Then  he 
answered,  "Christianas  stun,  intermittere  non  possum" 
— "I  am  a  Christian,  I  am  not  able  to  omit  it." 

Then  they  proceeded  to  execute  them,  either  burning 
them  or  carting  them  to  the  wild  beasts  in  the  Coliseum. 
This  is  positive  proof  that  they  were  keeping  the  first 
day  of  the  week,  hallowed  by  the  Lord's  resurrection  and 
consequently  always  called  the  Lord's  Day.  Rev.  1  :  to. 
whereas  Saturday  never  was  so  called.  If  they  had  been 
keeping  Saturday,   as  the   Seventh   Day  Adventists   tell 


2^S  Autobiography   of 

us,  then  the  judge  would  have  said,  "Sabbaticum  ser- 
vastif"— "Hast  thou  kept  the  Sabbath  day?"  But  they 
never  did  propound  that  question,  which  is  positive  proof 
that  they  were  not  keeping  the  old  day,  but  the  new 
one. 

There  is  an  impracticability  in  this  stickleristical  Sab- 
batic regime  of  these  people.  I  found  it  illustrated  in 
my  own  history  when  I  travelled  around  the  world.  As 
I  went  from  West  to  East,  I  had  366  days  in  the  year. 
Therefore  I  gained  a  day,  and  if  I  were  now  keeping 
the  seventh  day,  it  would  be  Saturday.  Should  I  travel 
around  again,  it  would  make  my  sabbath  Friday.  There- 
fore you  see  in  seven  years,  I  would  actually  have  to 
adopt  every  day  in  the  week  as  my  sabbath.  Suppose 
I  should  go  around  the  other  way ;  then  when  I  got  back, 
my  sabbath  would  be  Monday  as  I  would  only  have  364 
days  in  the  year.  Should  I  make  another  trip,  it  would 
be  Tuesday,  and  in  seven  years  travelling  around  the 
world  from  East  to  West,  would  again  change  my  sab- 
bath every  year  if  I  kept  the  seventh  day.  Any  way  you 
cm  arrange  it,  if  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists  were  right 
in  their  hypothesis  that  you  must  keep  the  seventh  day 
or  fall  under  condemnation,  one-half  the  world  would  be 
violating  the  sabbath.  When  the  Old  World  has  Sunday 
we  have  Monday.  This  illustrates  the  impracticability 
of  keeping  some  certain  number  as  the  day. 

At  Jerusalem  they  have  six  sabbaths  every  week.  They 
tell  me  that  the  Howling  Dervishes  keep  Monday,  the 
Jumping  Dervishes  Tuesday,  and  the  Dancing  Dervishes 
Thursday,  the  regular  sabbath  of  the  great  Mohammedan 
Church  is  Friday ;  the  seventy-five  thousand  Jews  in 
that  city  keep  Saturday,  and  the  Christians,  who  have 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  249 

their  colonies  there  from  all  the  prominent  nations,  keep 
Sunday.  [The  Dervishes  are  the  holiness  people  of  the 
Mohammedan  Church.] 

I  am  much  concerned  for  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists, 
lest  they  may  lose  their  souls,  and  their  hemerolatry,  i.  e., 
day  worship,  instead  of  being  Divine  worship,  actually 
drag  many  of  them  into  Hell.  If  you  will  examine  Paul's 
treatment  of  that  subject  in  Romans  and  1  Corinthians, 
where  he  is  discussing  the  subject  of  eating  meats  offered 
to  idols,  you  will  come  to  the  same  conclusion.  He  pro- 
ceeds to  state  that  all  those  who  had  reached  the  clear 
light  which  qualified  them  to  see  that  the  "idol  is  noth- 
ing/' can  eat  the  meats  offered  to  them  with  perfect 
impunity ;  while  those  who  had  not  reached  the  degree 
of  light,  so  that  they  still  felt  that  the  idol  to  which  the 
meat  had  been  sacrificed  existed,  all  such  should  desist 
from  eating  the  meat  offered  to  them,  as  their  consciences 
would  be  polluted  with  conviction  that  they  were  still 
serving  those  idols.  Then  he  adds  that  those  who,  like 
himself,  had  the  clear  light  and  saw  that  the  idols  were 
nothing  and  consequently  could  eat  the  meat  with 
perfect  impunity  so  far  as  their  own  conscience  was 
concerned,  must  still  abstain  for  the  sake  of  the  con- 
sciences of  their  brethren,  who  had  not  reached  the  clear 
light  which  they  themselves  enjoyed.  Paul  said,  "If 
meat  cause  my  brother  to  stumble,  I  zvill  never  eat  any 
more  of  it."  The  clear  and  unmistakable  conclusion  from 
these  deliverances  of  inspiration  is  simple  and  inevasible ; 
the  Seventh  Day  Adventists  must  either  keep  the  Chris- 
tian's Sabbath,  for  the  sake  of  the  conscience  of  Chris- 
tendom, or  fall  under  condemnation. 

The  fratricidal  Cain  told  God  he  was  not  his  brother's 


250  Autobiography   o* 

keeper;  still  God  held  him  to  the  awful  responsibility, 
and  said  to  him,  "Thy  brother's  blood  crieth  unto  me 
from  the  ground."  Therefore  if  these  people  want  to 
go  to  Heaven  they  will  have  to  keep  two  sabbaths  every 
week,  Saturday  for  their  own  conscience,  and  Sunday  for 
the  conscience  of  Christendom.  They  would  better  solve 
the  problem  in  a  short  way,  i.  e.,  get  sanctified-  wholly ; 
then  they  will  have  an  everlasting  Sabbath  in  their  hearts 
wherever  they  are,  and,  so  far  as  the  day  of  temporal 
rest  is  concerned,  they  will  rejoice  to  be  "all  things  to 
all  men." 


Chapter  IX. 
THE  WHISKEY  WAR. 

When  a  little  lad  the  "Sons  of  Temperance"  first 
organized  in  our  country,  and  I  heard  of  them  eight 
miles  distant.  Mounting  a  horse  I  hastened  to  them 
that  I  might  enjoy  the  coveted  privilege  of  joining  the 
crusade  against  King  Alcohol.  Therefore  with  great 
delight  I  took  the  pledge  of  total  abstinence,  which  I 
have  kept  intact  to  this  day,  having  all  my  life  been  an 
uncompromising  rum  fighter.  As  a  pastor  I  always  made 
it  a  rule  to  run  whiskey  out  of  my  circuit.  In  this  I 
always  succeeded,  though  sometimes  the  Conference 
would  take  me  away  before  the  victory  was  complete. 
But  the  temperance  ball  always  rolled  on,  until  victory 
perched  on  the  prohibition  banner  and  they  would  dis- 
patch to  me  the  glad  news. 

When  the  Civil  War  closed  I  was  in  Indiana,  where 
I  had  spent  the  period  of  conflict  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  as  I  was  a  Union  man,  having  migrated 
away  from  slave  territory,  where  I  remained  till  after 
the  emancipation  and  the  cessation  of  hostilities. 

Soon  after  the  disorganization  of  the  armies,  my  prin- 
cipal assistant  teacher,  who  was  also  a  preacher,  and 
twenty  years  my  senior,  came  to  me  in  the  college  build- 
ing bearing  the  sad  news  that  two  soldiers  had  arrived 
in  town  and  were  making  all  arrangements  immediately 

251 


252  Autobiography    of 

to  open  a  saloon.  I  told  him  at  once  that  we  must  not 
permit  it,  as  it  would  be  a  temptation  to  our  students 
and  its  very  existence  would  ruin  the  hitherto  unsullied 
reputation  of  our  amiable  town,  which  had  been  cel- 
ebrated for  temperance  and  religion.  1  suggested  to 
him  that  we  go  at  once  and  see  the  men  and  do  our 
utmost  to  dissuade  them  from  their  diabolical  enterprise. 
Therefore  we  got  a  citizen  to  give  us  a  polite  and  favor- 
able introduction  to  them.  Then  we  proceeded  with  the 
utmost  kindness  and  respect,  inwardly  praying  fervently 
to  God  for  His  help,  to  ask  them  to  be  so  kind  as  to 
desist  from  their  enterprise,  as  it  would  be  much  against 
our  college,  at  the  same  time  assuring  them  that  we  knew 
that  the  majority  of  the  better  citizens  were  fairly  repre- 
sented by  us  in  the  matter.  Though  we  had  taken  every 
possible  precaution  to  avoid  giving  offence,  they  pretty 
soon  got  angry  and  notified  us  that  they  had  a  government 
license  paid  for,  as  well  as  having  laid  in  their  stock, 
and  it  was  too  late  for  them  to  change  their  plans.  As 
we  continued  to  plead  and  insist  and  even  importune, 
they  broke  out  into  angry  denunciations  and  violent 
threats,  looking  us  in  the  face  with  demoniacal  oaths,  and 
said,  "We  have  been  down  South  the  last  four  years 
shooting  rebels,  and  we  now  have  a  government  license  to 
sell  whiskey  in  this  town,  therefore,  those  who  oppose  us 
are  trespassing  on  our  governmental  rights,  and  we  will 
shoot  them  as  quickly  as  we  shot  the  rebels." 

We,  keeping  perfectly  cool  and  full  of  love  and  kind- 
ness, continued  to  plead  with  them.  Finally  we  told 
them,  "We  are  going  to  hold  mass  meetings  and  make 
speeches  to  the  citizens  and  arouse  public  sentiment 
against  your  enterprise.     Rest  assured  we  are  not  going 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  a.  M.  253 

to  let  you  sell  whiskey  in  this  town.  If  you  undertake 
it,  you  will  make  a  failure,  loose  money,  and  be  sorry  for 
it.  Therefore  we  advise  you,  as  friends,  to  desist  at 
once."     . 

Though  they  cursed  and  threatened  us  to  the  last, 
manifesting  the  most  obdurate  determination  to  go  ahead 
with  their  Satanic  traffic  despite  the  combined  efforts  of 
the  good  people  to  avert  the  awful  temptation,  the  en- 
suing night  we  gathered  a  crowded  audience  into  the 
Methodist  Church  and  harangued  them  with  all  our 
might  to  unite  with  us  in  a  persistent  effort  to  prevent 
the  opening  of  that  horrific  Hell-hole,  to  swallow  up 
our  students  and  their  children.  They  entered  into  the 
most  hearty  sympathy  with  us  and  unanimously  re- 
sponded to  our  appeal,  resolving  that  "the  institution" 
should  not  be  conducted  in  our  town;  that  we  would  pre- 
vent it  at  any  cost.  Though  the  proprietors  gave  us  no 
encouragement,  we  continued  our  mass-meetings  and 
temperance  speeches,  and  they  never  did  open  their 
stock,  but  went  away. 

When  we  moved  back  to  Perryville,  Ky.,  we  found  it 
flooded  with  whiskey,  having  suffered  awful  moral  deter- 
ioration during  the  war.  I  first  moved  the  organization 
of  a  temperance  society,  contemplating  it  as  a  nucleus 
around  which  to  rally  the  prohibition  sentiment.  In  due 
time  we  vacated  our  hall  for  mass  meetings  in  the  Meth- 
odist Church.  There  we  had  much  prayer  to  God  to 
help  us  in  the  awful  trouble,  and  made  temperance 
speeches  the  great  speciality  of  the  occasion.  The  Lord 
helped  us  to  arouse  popular  sentiment  against  the  hor- 
rific reign  of  Satan  which  had  debauched  the  commun- 
ity during  four  years. 


254  Autobiography   otf 

Though  Kentucky  is  the  worst  whiskey  state  in  the 
Union,  we  have  a  law  investing  the  citizens  with  the 
right  of  local  option,  in  case  that  the  majority  of  legal 
voters  can  be  secured.  By  the  help  of  the  Lord  we  were 
enabled  to  so  manipulate  popular  sentiment  as  to  secure 
a  legislative  act  including  the  town  and  west  end  of  the 
county,  extending  eastward  to  Salt  River.  As  the  Legis- 
lature was  at  that  time  in  session,  we  at  once  sent  away 
Judges  Jones  and  Armstrong,  two  of  our  most  prom- 
inent citizens,  to  wait  on  the  Legislature  in  our  behalf. 
The  result  was  that  we  secured  the  passage  of  the  pro- 
hibitory law,  protecting  our  town  and  the  west  end  of 
the  county  from  the  awful  nuisance  of  intoxicating 
drinks.  Having  secured  the  legislative  act,  the  next  thing 
was  to  enforce  it,  as  they  were  selling  at  several  different 
places.  In  this  war  Satan  raged  and  stirred  earth  and 
Hell  against  us  with  all  his  might.  One  day  they  fired 
on  a  group  of  us  temperance  men  from  a  whiskey  tavern 
across  the  street.  The  fire  was  returned  by  the  temper- 
ance men  and  there  was  quite  a  roar  of  pistols,  creating 
great  excitement.  One  man  was  killed,  and  afterward 
one  of  our  best  temperance  workers  was  shot  by  a 
whiskey  man.  They  blamed  me  more  than  any  other 
and.  looking  me  in  the  face,'  as  in  Indiana,  swore  they 
would  shoot  me  if  I  did  not  let  them  alone.  I  said  to 
them.  "If  you  shoot  me,  somebody  else  will  shoot  you; 
we  will  never  let  you  alone  till  you  go  out  of  this  bus- 
iness." 

Some  who  persisted  in  selling  without  a  license  were 
flogged  and  driven  away.  Eventually  all  had  closed  out 
but  one  who  was  very  obstinate,  claiming  that  he  had  a 
government   license   which   superseded   our  local   option 


Rev.  W.  b.  godbey,  a.  m.  255 

During  the  entire  campaign,  mass  meetings  continued  to 
be  held  in  the  Methodist  Church,  prayers  were  sent  up 
to  God  and  speeches  were  delivered  to  the  people.  Fin- 
ally a  great  crowd  having  spent  some  time  in  earnest 
prayer  and  a  number  of  speeches  having  been  delivered 
to  the  spellbound  crowd,  they  all  marched  out  of  the 
church  in  a  procession.  Old  Dr.  Polk,  our  venerable 
patriarch,  carrying  the  open  Bible,  led  the  host,  followed 
by  the  women  and  then  the  men,  and  making  quite  a 
demonstration,  marched  to  this  saloon.  The  women 
aimed  to  pour  out  the  man's  whiskey  while  the  men  stood 
by  and  saw  it  well  done.  Though  he  looked  me  in  the 
face  and  threatened  to  shoot  me,  and  hitherto  proved 
exceedingly  audacious  and  obstinate,  when  he  saw  the 
great  procession  he  became  affrighted,  surrendered  and 
begged  for  time  to  move  his  stock  away  and  leave  the 
country,  which  was  granted.  This  wound  up  the  cam- 
paign with  a  glorious  victory. 

The  saloon  element  have  a  clamorous  maxim,  "Prohi- 
bition does  not  prohibit."  As  a  demonstrative  proof  that 
that  is  Satan's  falsehood,  I  refer  you  to  Perryville,  Ky., 
where  we  drove  whiskey  out  forty  years  ago  and  it  has 
never  gotten  back.  For  quite  awhile  they  continued 
their  vigorous  efforts  to  revive  the  saloons,  but  constantly 
failed.  It  has  been  many  years  since  they  have  attempted 
the  iniquitous  re-enthronement  of  King  Alcohol  there. 
After  the  expulsion  of  whiskey,  the  drunkards  became 
sober  and  united  with  the  churches.  As  you  know  strong 
drink  always  shortens  life,  they  have  all  passed  away  to 
the  graveyard  and,  as  we  hope,  to  a  glorious  immortality. 

When  I  was  sent  to  Mackville  they  had  already  secured 
a  legislative  act  protecting  the  town,  but  it  happened  that 


256  Autobiography   op 

it  only  extended  one  mile  out  from  the  corporation  limits. 
Soon  after  my  arrival  I  was  informed  that  a  man  was 
preparing"  to  open  a  saloon  a  few  paces  beyond  the  mile 
limitation.  I  immediately  called  a  mass  meeting  in  the 
Methodist  Church  and  had  prayers  and  temperance 
speeches,  arousing  the  people  to  action  in  the  matter, 
and  appealing  to  them  to  solemnly  protest  against  the 
opening  of  the  saloon  at  that  near  proximity.  In  this 
the  multitudes  were  concurrent  in  the  negative,  protesting 
most  solemnly  against  the  iniquitous  institution.  I  told 
them  all  to  pray  the  next  morning  while  I  went  and  talked 
with  the  man.  I  took  with  me  a  good  Methodist  brother 
to  serve  as  bodyguard.  On  arrival  I  invited  the  man  to 
come  out  on  the  pike  as  we  wished  to  converse  with  him. 
Then  we  proceeded,  in  brotherly  love  and  kindness,  to  ask 
him  to  please  desist,  telling  him  that  we  had  held  a  mass 
meeting  the  preceding  night  and  all  the  people  were  very 
anxious  that  he  should  kindly  desist,  and  that  we  had 
borne  to  him  their  earnest  request  that  he  should  do 
them  this  favor  and  change  his  purpose  of  opening  a 
saloon.  Despite  all  the  love  and  kindness  we  could  possi- 
bly show  him,  he  got  very  angry,  saying  that  he  paid  for 
his  license,  laid  in  his  stock  and  had  the  law  on  his  side 
and  it  was  too  late  to  ask  him  to  desist.  When  T  told 
him  that  we  had  passed  unanimous  resolutions  that  he 
should  not  carry  out  his  enterprise,  he  also  threatened 
me  with  violence  saying  he  would  shoot  me.  When  he 
got  into  a  rage,  uttering  his  violent  threats,  my  atten- 
tion was  so  centered  on  him  that  for  a  moment  I  lost 
sight  of  the  good  brother  who  was  kindly  serving  me 
as  a  bodyguard.  Upon  looking  round  I  saw  him  about 
fifty  yards  distant  and  getting  away  as  fast  as  he  pos- 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  257 

sibly  could.  I  simply  said  to  the  angry  man  amid  his 
threats,  "If  you  kill  me,  somebody  else  will  kill  you," 
meanwhile  I  told  him  positively,  "Rely  upon  it,  we  are 
not  going-  to  let  you  sell  whiskey  here."  He  then  ac- 
cused me  of  threatening  him  with  the  Ku  Klux,  as  that 
was  immediately  after  the  war,  when  much  violence  was 
prevalent  in  the  country  and  very  frequently  men  were 
found  in  the  morning  hanging  by  the  neck.  I  showed 
him  that  I  was  his  friend  and  that  he  would  better  fol- 
low my  advice,  saying  to  him,  "If  you  go  into  this  busi- 
ness, you  will  not  succeed.  You  will  lose  your  money 
and  be  sorry  for  it  when  it  is  too  late ;  you  will  get  into 
trouble  which  you  do  not  expect,  and  fortune's  wheel 
will  certainly  revolve  against  you."  Suffice  it  to  say  he 
gave  up  his  enterprise  and  went  into  an  honest  employ- 
ment. 

When  I  was  presiding  elder  thirty-three  years  ago  and 
found  illegal  distilleries  operating  extensively  in  my  dis- 
trict, as  the  government  licenses  were  so  costly  that  they 
were  not  able  to  run  a  registered  distillery,  I  went  to 
work  to  rid  the  country  of  these  nuisances.  When  I 
was  presiding  over  the  Quarterly  Conference  in  Whites- 
burg,  the  county-seat  of  Letcher  Co.,  and  asked  the 
brethren,  they  told  me  that  there  were  twenty-three 
illegal  distilleries  operating  in  that  county.  I  said, 
"Brethren,  why  do  you  not  notify  the  government  of- 
ficers so  that  they  will  break  them  all  up,  as  they  will 
certainly  do  in  that  case?"  They  responded,  "We  dare 
not  do  anything  of  that  kind,  lest  they  kill  us,  for  they 
boldly  proclaim  that  they  will  shoot  any  man  who  in- 
forms on  them."  Then,  as  presiding  elder  of  that  dis- 
trict, I  felt  it  my  duty  to  notify  the  government  officers 


258  Autobiography   o* 

and  appeal  to  them  to  rid  our  county  of  the  awful  curse. 
Consequently  I  said  to  the  brethren,  "I  shall  certainly 
report  them !"  They  begged  me  not  to  do  it  for  they 
did  believe  those  men  would  kill  me.  At  that  time  there 
were  no  railroads  in  that  mountainous  country  and  I  did 
all  of  my  travelling  on  horse-back.  It  was  very  common 
for  men  to  be  shot  by  concealed  assassins  as  they  rode 
through  the  mountains.  That  was  so  early  after  the 
Civil  War  that  those  feuds  which  so  long  survived  in 
that  country  were  still  there.  I  proceeded  at  once  to 
write  an  open  letter  to  the  "Mountain  Echo,"  which  was 
published  in  that  country,  in  which  I  stated  that  those 
twenty-three  illegal  distilleries  were  operating,  much  to 
the  demoralization  of  the  whole  country,  and  that  we 
appealed  to  the  Government  to  come  and  take  them  out. 
This  letter  was  quoted  by  the  papers  throughout  the 
State,  producing  a  general  sensation.  But  the  Govern- 
ment nobly  responded,  sending  soldiers  and  breaking  up 
all  those  "moonshine  distilleries."  My  friends  were  much 
excited  for  my  safety,  believing  that  those  men  would 
kill  me.  They  did  shoot  one  of  my  local  preachers  in 
an  adjoining  county,  while  I  was  in  the  county,  by  the 
hand  of  a  concealed  assassin.  I  had  signed  my  name  to 
the  letter  I  wrote  appealing  to  the  Government.  This 
was  necessary,  as  an  anonymous  one  would  have  im- 
periled innocent  parties,  involving  them  in  jeopardy. 
Despite  the  remonstrances  of  my  friends,  I  went  along 
without  missing  a  single  appointment,  solitary  and  alone, 
into  all  of  those  regions,  despite  their  overt  and  vocif- 
erous threats.  Not  only  were  those  whiskey  nuisances 
broken  up,  but  we  had  glorious,  sweeping  revivals  all 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  259 

over  my  district,  actually  resulting  in  doubling  my  mem- 
bership during  my  quadrennium. 

My  last  pastoral  charge  before  the  Bishop  got  me  into 
evangelistic  work  for  life,  was  at  Carlyle,  Nicholas  Co. 
The  Ministerial  Temperance  Association  in  that  State 
appointed  me  superintendent  of  the  force  in  that  county. 
I  was  there  three  years,  meanwhile  we  organized  and 
pressed  the  battle  in  all  parts  of  the  county,  establishing 
local  option  in  every  district,  except  the  county-seat. 
There  the  whiskey  men  bought  the  colored  vote  and 
beat  us  for  a  time.  One  day  I  was  in  a  large  drygoods 
store,  kept  by  Brothers  Mann  &  Kennedy,  both  Methodist 
preachers,  when  looking  out  I  saw  a  fine-looking  man 
riding  a  splendid  horse.  Then  Brother  Mann  said  to 
me,  "There  comes  Captain  Buckler,  the  leader  of  the 
whiskey  party,  worth  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  which 
he  has  made  on  whiskey.  He  has  now  thirty  thousand 
dollars'  worth  in  his  warehouse,  keeping  it  till  it  gets 
old  and  will  bear  a  high  price."  I  said,  "Please  intro- 
duce me  to  him."  He  very  politely  returned  the  intro- 
duction. I  told  him  when  and  where,  the  Lord  willing, 
I  would  preach  and  invited  him  to  come  to  the  meeting, 
and  he  promised  me  that  he  would.  He  lived  in  the 
country  four  miles  distant,  on  a  splendid  blue-grass  farm. 
I  had  a  church  in  that  neighborhood.  I  found  him  in 
my  congregation  quite  regularly,  as  his  wife  was  a  mem- 
ber and  he  kindly  accompanied  her.  Eventually  he  in- 
vited me  to  go  home  with  him  from  a  night  service.  I 
preached  to  him  faithfully  as  we  rode  side  by  side  along 
the  nice  turnpike.  Next  morning  I  was  sitting  in  the 
family  room  before  I  started  to  meeting  and  he  came  and 
dropped  a  five  dollar  bill  in  my  hand,  observing,  "I  am 


260  Autobiography   of" 

not  in  the  habit  of  giving  any  money  to  the  preachers, 
but  will  be  obliged  if  you  will  take  this,"  which  i  did 
with  many  thanks,  then  turning  away,  at  once  looking 
back  he  dropped  another  five  dollar  bill  into  my  hand. 
It  was  not  long  till  he  presented  himself  as  a  seeker  of 
salvation  and  continued  in  that  attitude  quite  awhile ; 
then  during  the  altar  service  in  the  midst  of  a  glorious 
revival  in  the  town  church,  he  got  up  and  there  boldly 
testified  to  personal  salvation,  to  the  delectation  of  the 
large  autiience  who  crowded  round,  joyfully  congratu- 
lating him.  Of  course  he  utterly  went  out  of  the  whiskey 
business,  not  only  falling  in  with  the  temperance  army 
but  prophesying  that  the  Prohibition  Movement  would 
continue  till  it  swept  alcohol  from  the  nation.  God  in 
mercy  expedite  the  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy !  This 
is  a  cogent  argument  for  entire  sanctification,  which  in- 
variably make  all  of  its  votaries  radical  Prohibitionists. 

While  there  is  more  whiskey  made  in  Kentucky  than 
in  any  other  state  in  the  Union,  which  doubtless  largely 
accounts  for  the  large  criminal  list  which  makes  us  all 
blush  for  shame,  yet  God  has  honored  our  labors,  waging 
an  exterminating  war  against  the  manufacture  and  sale 
of  this  awful  liquid  damnation,  and  giving  us  local  option 
extending  over  large  portions  of  the  State,  which  thus 
brilliantly  contrast  with  the  dark  regions  dominated  by 
the  soul-destroying  monster. 

Our  greatest  trouble  in  the  local  option  elections  has 
been  the  difficulty  of  controlling  the  colored  vote.  This 
is,  however,  much  relieved,  as  those  people  since  the 
Emancipation  have  made  rapid  progress,  both  education- 
ally and  religiously. 

Gen.  Clay  Smith,  a  Baptist  oreacher  and  the  first  can- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godp.ky,  A.  M.  261 

didate  for  the  Presidency  on  the  Prohibition  ticket,  has 
been  eminently  useful  in  the  1  t.     When  he  was 

pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Alt.  Sterling  and  T.  J. 
Godbey,  a  cousin  of  mine,  of  the  Methodist  Church  in 
that  city,  they  had  one  of  the  most  interesting"  campaigns 
I  have  ever  known  (as  I  was  there  assisting  my  cousin 
in  a  revival  meeting).  The  good  people  led  by  their 
pastors  had  labored  long  and  hard  and  reached  the  point 
where  they  knew  they  had  the  majority  of  the  white 
people,  consequently  the  fight  was  with  the  sons  of  Ham. 
They  had  made  them  a  specialty  and  were  very  hopeful, 
though  they  knew  the  saloon-keepers  would  buy  them  if 
possible.  Finally  on  Sunday  night  preceding  the  Mon- 
day of  the  election  they  had  a  union  rally  in  the  Methodist 
Colored  Church  in  their  special  interest ;  hither  the  white 
pastors  and  leading  brethren  had  assembled.  The  house 
was  packed  and  crowds  thronged  the  doors  and  windows. 
Gen.  Smith  proceeded  to  address  them,  telling  them  about 
how  his  father  owned  sixty  of  them  and  yet  he  went 
into  the  Union  Army  and  fought  to  free  them.  He  had 
been  wounded  on  the  battlefield,  so,  holding  up  his  arm 
which  had  been  lacerated  by  a  bullet,  he  proceeded  to 
tell  them  that  he  was  in  great  trouble,  fighting  that  awful 
monster,  whiskey,  which  was  sending  millions  to  a  drunk- 
ard's Hell,  and  so  he  much  needed  help.  Thus  appealing 
to  them,  he  said,  "When  you  were  all  in  bondage,  and 
my  father  owned  sixty  of  you,  I  went  to  the  battlefield, 
fought  and  shed  my  blood  to  break  your  chains,  to  set 
you  free,  and  now  when  I'm  in  trouble,  if  you  don't  help 
me,  I'll  be  mad."  At  that  moment  shouts  roared  from 
all  parts  of  the  audience,  "We  are  going  to  help  you, 
boss,  that  we  will,  don't  be  afraid !"     Then  the  pastor 


262  Autoriocr  \piiy    oP 

turned,  stated  that  their  Conference  was  coming  on  and 
they  were  behind  in  their  finances  and  needed  money, 
specifying  the  amount.  Then  those  white  brethren 
walked  forward  and  laid  on  the  table  all  the  deficiency, 
to  the  infinite  delight  of  their  sable  brethren  Next 
morning  all  of  the  pastors  were  at  the  polls  bright  and 
earl)r,  before  they  opened.  Every  colored  man  was  in- 
terviewed and  a  ticket  given  him.  On  that  day  the 
saloons  were  all  giving  out  free  whiskey,  but  the  Chris- 
tian women  had  their  lunch-stands  giving  them  coffee, 
pies,  cakes-  and  other  delicious  edibles  free.  The  tide 
moved  up  so  rapidly  in  favor  of  local  option  that  by  ten 
o'clock  the  saloon  men,  despairing  of  victory,  ceased  to 
donate  the  whiskey,  but  began  to  sell  it,  as  they  knew 
their  race  was  run  and  they  would  get  to  sell  no  more 
after  those  few  days. 


Chapter  X. 
FIGHT  AGAINST  SATAN. 

When  the  Lord  sanctified  me,  baptizing  me  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  in  1868,  He  actually  made  me  a 
flaming  cyclone.  I  inherited  a  wonderfully  tenacious 
physical  constitution,  the  hard  work  and  constant  activity 
through  which  my  boyhood  passed  making  me  an  athlete 
and  giving  me  physical  hardlihood  of  a  very  extraordi- 
nary type.  From  the  very  hour  of  my  %anctification  I  was 
an  indefatigable  preacher  and  always  ready  to  blow  the 
silver  trumpet,  warn  the  wicked  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come, 
and  cheer  the  weak  believers  along  the  heavenly  way. 
I  have  often  preached  six  times  a  day.  I  was  a  constant 
runner  from  house  to  house,  dashing  in,  talking  to  the 
people  about  salvation  and  praying  for  them. 

In  time  of  a  snow  knee-deep  I  went  to  a  country 
church  to  hold  a  protracted  meeting,  finding  it  very  dif- 
ficult to  get  my  horse  across  the  streams  which  were  all 
frozen  over.  A  man  who  was  not  saved  and  had  no  lean- 
ing toward  the  Methodists  kindly  came  out  and  helped 
me  to  get  my  horse  across  the  creek  and  said  afterward 
that  he  thought  I  was  a  fool  to  undertake  a  protracted 
meeting  in  such  weather.  Though  the  winter  continued 
like  Greenland,  before  the  meeting  was  over  he  travelled 
the  five  miles  to  it,  continued  to  go  and  got  gloriously 
saved.      At    my    first    meeting   only    four    persons    were 

263 


264  Autobiography    op 

present,  a  backslidden  member,  a  regular  hard  case,  a 
notorious  infidel  and  a  little  boy.  They  all  got  converted 
and  the  infidel  turned  a  preacher  on  the  spot  and  began 
to  help  me  with  all  his  might. 

-The  news  went  out  that  Tom  Camick  was  converted 
and  preaching  with  all  his  might.  The  people,  despite 
the  terrible  weather,  crowded  and  packed  the  house  and 
a  great  revival  broke  out  that  swept  like  an  avalanche 
over  the  whole  country  far  and  wide.  That  revival 
actually  trebled  the  membership  in  the  church,  so  that 
they  built  them  a  nice  new  edifice  and  made  a  new  de- 
parture for  the  land  of  the  blessed.  Though  that  was 
long  before  the  Holiness  Movement  ever  reached  that 
country,  we  had  some  really  wonderful  manifestations 
of  the  sanctifying  power.  Before  the  Movement  reached 
the  country,  it  was  such  an  utter  novelty  that  no  one 
would  profess  it  unless  he  actually  got  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  fire.  The  sanctification  of  Thomas  Wil- 
liams, who  stood  at  the  very  front  of  the  Church,  was 
miraculous  and  phenomenal.  Though  the  profession  was 
utterly  unknown  among  the  people,  he  boldly  testified  to 
it,  till  the  Lord  took  him  to  Heaven.  That  year  between 
four  and  five  hundred  people  professed  conversion  and 
joined  the  churches  on  my  circuit. 

Meanwhile  a  very  bright,  smart  infidel  came  to  town 
and  gained  a  notoriety  by  cursing  our  meeting,  saying 
he  had  heard  that  "that  man  Godbey  was  running  a  con- 
verting machine  in  that  town  and  that  he  had  come  up 
to  get  him  to  turn  loose  his  batteries  on  him,"  at  the  same 
time  challenging  him  to  try  it,  and  boasting  that  he 
would  find  hard  material  if  he  did.  After  we  had  prayed 
and  testified  for  an  hour  by  way  of  introductory  to  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  265 

night  meeting,  which  we  generally  held  from  four  to  five 
hours  and  frequently  running  much  longer,  I,  as  a  con- 
firmation of  the  appalling  wickedness  prevailing  in  that 
country,  told  them  what  I  had  heard,  and  at  the  same 
time  ejaculated  a  prayer  that  God,  for  Christ's  sake, 
would  send  His  Holy  Spirit  that  moment  to  open  that 
man's  eyes  and  give  him  a  look  into  the  Hell  which  was 
coming  to  meet  him,  before  he  took  the  awful  plunge. 
As  the  house  was  packed  to  overflowing  and  the  man 
was  a  stranger,  I  had  no  idea  that  he  was  within  hearing 
distance,  but  he  was  in  the  rear  of  the  audience  and 
afterward  said  that  while  I  was  personating  him,  a 
lightening  bolt  struck  his  heart  and  he  saw  Hell  open  and 
the  devils  coming  for  him.  He  never  ceased  to  cry  to 
God  till  he  was  gloriously  saved — became  a  bright,  able 
preacher  of  the  Gospel. 

During  those  meetings  an  old  Presbyterian  brother 
rode  his  horse  twenty  miles  to  get  me  to  go  into  his 
neighborhood  and  preach.  There  was  no  church  about 
there,  but  he  was  running  a  saw-mill  and  said  he  would 
take  his  own  lumber  and  fix  up  a  comfortable  auditorium 
beneath  the  green  trees  and  we  would  hold  meetings, 
pleading  with  God  to  save  the  poor,  wicked  neighbors. 
On  arrival  I  found  but  one  business  house  there  and  the 
principal  commodity  in  that  whiskey,  and  soon  found 
that  it  was  a  drunken  Hell-den.  Therefore  I  preached 
my  first  sermon  to  a  large,  curious  crowd,  straight  against 
whiskey,  with  all  my  might,  portraying  it  as  a  hell  on 
earth  in  which  to  travel  down  to  the  lake  of  fire  and 
brimstone  beneath.  I  did  my  best  to  arouse  all  the  people 
against  it  and  made  an  appeal  for  all  who  wanted  it 
taken  away  to  rise.     Responsive  to  the  appeal  as  I  con- 


266  AUTOBIOGR/  "HY     OP 

tinued  to  plead  with  them,  I  finally  got  them  all  on  their 
feet  in  the  affirmative,  except  a  group  of  about  a  dozen. 
Then  I  ran  to  them  calling  the  congregation  to  their 
knees  and  got  down  and  pra;  d  for  them  with  all  my 
might,  designating  them  as  Satan's  standard-bearers  and 
pleading  earnestly  that  God  should  have  mercy  and  show 
them  an  open  Hell  before  they  took  the  irretrievable 
plunge.  The  next  morning  I  received  a  notice  warning 
me  to  leave  before  nightfall  or  my  neck  would  certainly 
be  stretched,  and  signed  "Ku  Klux."  At  that  time  im- 
mediately following  the  Civil  War,  it  was  very  common 
for  men  to  be  hung  in  the  night  by  unknown  bands.  I 
read  the  notice  to  my  congregation  and  they  pleaded 
with  me  to  go. 

While  the  excitement  was  intense,  as  those  whiskey 
men  were  doing  their  best  to  run  me  away  and  there  were 
the  fewest  number  of  Christians  in  the  meeting,  a  woman 
asked  me  to  go  and  eat  dinner  with  her.  As  we  passed 
through  the  front  room  I  saw  a  fine  looking  young  man, 
apparently  about  twenty,  lying  on  a  bed  and  scorched 
with  a  terrible  fever.  Approaching  him  I  asked  about 
him,  and  she  said  that  he  had  been  there  ten  days  with 
the  physician  giving  him  constant  attention,  but  he  get- 
ting worse  all  the  time.  I  told  them  Jesus  who  had  re- 
buked the  fever  that  burnt  the  body  of  Peter's  mother- 
in-law  is  here  to-day  and  could  heal  this  young  man  if 
he  would  have  faith.  Then  kneeling  by  him  I  prayed 
for  him,  holding  my  hands  on  his  burning  body.  The 
fever  left  him,  he  got  up  and  dressed  and  came  to  the 
afternoon  meeting ;  nobody  in  that  neighborhood  had 
ever  heard  of  Divine  Healing.  At  that  time  it  had 
neither  witnesses  nor  advocates.     Therefore  when  John 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  207 

eame  and  he  and  his  mother  witnessed  to  the  mighty 
work  of  the  Lord  in  healing  his  body,  saying  to  the 
people,  "Beware  how  you  treat  this  man,  for  he  has 
power  to  heal  the  sick,"  at  the  same  time  testifying  that 
he  had  burnt  with  typhoid  fever  ten  days  and  gotten  no 
relief,  but  was  healed  while  I  was  praying  for  him,  his 
mother  gladly  corroborating  his  testimony,  the  result 
was  that  conviction  fell  on  the  people  and  we  had  a 
glorious  revival. 

From  that  circuit  the  Conference  sent  me  to  Burling- 
ton, the  county-seat  of  Boone  Co.,  of  which  Covington, 
containing  about  a  hundred  thousand  people,  is  the  me- 
tropolis. They  gave  me  that  town  along  with  Florence  and 
East  Berd,  thriving  bluegrass  villages,  containing  about 
fifteen  hundred  each.  At  the  close  of  the  Conference, 
Wednesday  night,  the  Bishop  read  out  the  appointments. 
Though  the  schedule  time  for  the  preachers  to  begin  the 
work  of  the  ensuing  year  did  not  arrive  till  Sunday,  1 
started  away  on  the  first  train,  reaching  East  Berd 
Thursday  afternoon.  Then  sending  the  word  all  around, 
we  drummed  up  a  good  congregation  by  lamplighting. 

Meanwhile  the  magnates  of  the  Church  informed  me 
that  they  had  preaching  by  just  two  denominations,  i.  e., 
the  Methodists  and  the  Universalists,  and  that  they  al- 
ternated either  with  the  other  in  perfect  harmony,  broth- 
erly love  and  Christian  union,  and  that  I  must  be  very 
careful  to  say  nothing  about  Hell  and  damnation,  lest 
they  receive  offense,  which  would  ruin  everything.  If 
they  had  said  nothing  to  me,  I  would  certainly  not  have 
introduced  myself  by  preaching  on  that  subject,  but 
under  the  circumstances  I  saw  it  was  "strike  then"  or 
my  liberties  were  gone  and  my  year's  work  a  failure. 


268  Autobiography    op 

Therefore,  taking  for  my  text,  Psalm  x:  ly,  "The  wicked 
shall  be  turned  into  Hell,  with  all  the  tuitions  that  forget 
God,"  I  uncapped  the  bottomless  pit  and  shook  them  over 
it,  exposing  the  fact  that  people  who  do  not  believe  in 
Hell  are  unbelievers;  that  Jesus  says,  "He  that  believeth 
not  shall  be  damned."  While  I  exposed  the  awful  doom 
of  the  wicked,  I  held  those  poor,  deluded  Universalists 
over  the  flaming  abyss  and  the  people  saw  them  all  drop- 
ping in  and  the  devil  kicking  them  for  foot-balls  around 
the  pandemonium,  cursing  them  for  being  such  fools 
as  to  believe  his  lies  and  take  Hell  out  of  their  creed, 
thus  giving  him  a  chance  to  lead  them  blind-folded  till 
they  dropped  down  to  rise  no  more. 

That  one  sermon  settled  my  destiny  at  that  place.  The 
news  had  gone  abroad  everywhere  that  I  was  crazy. 
They  had  heard  it  and  then  they  believed  it  and  were 
so  disgusted  with  me  that  they  didn't  want  me  for  their 
preacher. 

The  following  morning  I  hasted  away  to  Florence,  a 
very  beautiful  town.  There  we  scattered  the  word  all 
around  so  that  we  had  a  splendid  audience  at  night,  the 
people  posting  me  up,  notifying  me  that  they  had  two 
denominations  preaching  in  that  town,  the  Methodists 
and  Campbellites,  alternating  either  with  the  other,  and 
warned  me  that  I  should  be  very  careful  not  to  say  any- 
thing against  the  water  doctrine,  such  a  favorite  with 
the  Campbellites,  lest  they  receive  offense,  observing  that 
they  had  Christian  union  and  qp-operation  and  were  op- 
posed to  having  anything  said  calculated  to  alienation. 

I  knew  I  could  do  no  good  there  if  I  closed  my  mouth 
against    the    awful,    soul-destroying    her  currently 

preached  by  those  people,  deceiving  poor  souls  by  thou- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  269 

sands  and  making  them  believe  they  are  Christians  when 
they  are  sinners  in  the  broad  way  that  leads  to  death. 
Therefore  I  fearlessly  exposed  their  heresies  and  labored 
to  show  the  people  the  true  way  of  salvation  by  grace 
and  not  by  works.  Of  course  that  upset  them  and,  as 
they,  too,  had  heard  the  report  that  I  was  crazy,  they 
concluded  they  did  not  want  a  crazy  preacher  whom  they 
could  not  control.  Therefore  they  settled  on  the  conclu- 
sion of  giving  me  a  free  ride  to  the  presiding  elder's 
office  in  Covington.  Therefore  Saturday  morning  I  en- 
joyed this  ten  mile  ride  free.  The  carriage  was  driven 
by  the  leading  steward  who  turned  over  the  crazy  preach- 
er to  the  presiding  elder  and  asked  him  to  supply  his 
place.  That  was  the  happiest  ride  of  my  life.  I  shouted 
all  the  way  and  he  groaned.  I  was  bright  as  the  vernal 
rose  and  he  was  blue  as  indigo. 

At  that  time  Bishop  McTieyre,  in  charge  of  the  six 
Southern  Methodist  Conferences  in  Texas,  which  was 
then  truly  the  Wild  West,  was  calling  aloud  for  a  hun- 
dred volunteers  to  supply  the  deficiencies  in  the  Lone 
Star  State.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  respond  to  his  call, 
saying  to  him,  to  put  me  down  ad  libitum  in  the  Lone 
Star  State.  Therefore  I  ordered  my  presiding  elder  to 
telegraph  my  name  to  him,  but  he  positively  refused  to 
do  it,  saying  that  he  would  rather  transfer  any  other 
twenty  men  out  of  the  Kentucky  Conference  than  W.  B. 
Godbey.  He  looked  me  in  the  face  and  said,  "Brother 
Godbey,  the  man  that  had  four  hundred  people  converted 
last  year  cannot  transfer  out  of  this  Conference."  Then 
I  said,  "What  will  you  do  with  me?  My  people  have 
rejected  me  and  hauled  me  away  for  a  crazy  man." 
"Oli,"  he  said,  "that  question  is  easily  answered.     I  will 


270  Autobiography    op 

take  you  from  them  and  give  them  a  dead  man,  such  as 
they  want  and  of  which  I  have  more  on  my  hands  than 
I  know  what  to  do  with.  I  will  send  you  where  they 
want  you,  for  our  cahinet  was  crowded  with  calls  for 
you  and  I  labored  hard  and  got  you  for  my  district  and 
sent  you  where  you  are  most  needed,  but  they  have  taken 
the  responsibility  into  their  own  hands  and  sent  you 
away,  so  now  they  can  abide  their  own  destiny."  Then 
he  simply  exchanged  me  and  another  man,  sending  him 
to  my  place  and  me  to  his. 

When  I  arrived  at  my  new  destination,  having  no 
secrets,  I  frankly  informed  them  of  my  recent  history 
in  transportation,  at  the  same  time  reminding  them  that 
I  was  ready  for  another  free  ride,  but  they  said,  "We 
will  not  give  you  any  free  ride ;  you  are  the  man  we 
have  been  wanting  and  praying  for,  as  we  awfully  need 
a  revival."  Then  I  went  to  work  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  who  came  and  converted  five  hundred  people,  so 
enlarging  the  circuit  that  we  had  to  divide  it  in  two. 
lest  it  be  unwieldly,  and  it  has  been  two  ever  since. 

Of  course  the  older  people  understand  the  charge  of 
craziness  which  was  brought  against  me.  All  the  sanc- 
tified people  at  that  time  were  called  "crazy,"  and  can- 
didly, because  they  were  so  unlike  other  people  that  they 
actually  thought  that  they  were  crazy.  That  was  long 
before  the  Holiness  Movement  crossed  the  Ohio  River 
and  rolled  its  heavenly  wave  over  the  beautiful  sunny 
South.  The  witnesses  to  sanctification  then  were  so  few 
and  so  unlike  other  people  that  they  thought  they  were 
crazy.  God,  in  His  great  mercy,  gave  me  grace  to  prove 
true  or  I  would  have  fallen  and  lost  my  experience,  as 
that  was  a  very  severe  test.    Multitudes  have  fallen  under 


Rtv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  271 

tests  of  that  kind.  To  have  the  people  believe  you  are 
crazy  and  haul  you  away,  rejecting  you  as  their  preach- 
er, is  certainly  a  very  trying  experience.  God  male  it  a 
great  blessing  to  me,  and  enabled  me  to  come  through 
it  brighter  and  stronger  than  ever  before. 

Cape  Gerardo,  the  city  of  seven  thousand  on  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi  River  in  Missouri,  was  the  first  place 
I  ever  preached  in  that  great  state  in  1883.  When  I 
arrived,  responsive  to  the  call  of  the  Methodist  pastor, 
I  found  myself  preaching  to  but  a  sprinkle  of  a  congre- 
gation. This  originated  from  the  fact  that  the  Metho- 
dists happened  to  be  very  weak  in  that  city,  never  having 
grown  like  other  churches.  At  that  time  I  was  in  the 
vigor  of  my  manhood  and  early  in  my  sanctified  experi- 
ence, exceedingly  athletic  and  demonstrative.  After  a 
few  days  the  pastor  took  me  aside  and  read  to  me  about 
two  columns  in  one  of  the  daily  papers,  written  by  the 
editor  who  had  taken  it  on  himself  to  come  to  the  meet- 
ing. He  heard  me  preach  and  then  wrote  me  up  for  his 
paper,  describing  me  in  a  most  hideous  way  and  literally 
flooding  me  with  burlesque,  caricature  and  ridicule,  pro- 
nouncing me  as  the  most  consummate  buffoon  he  had 
ever  seen,  and  assuring  the  people  that  the  finest  circus 
clown  in  the  nation  had  been  unfortunately  spoiled  in 
order  to  make  a  preacher  of  your  humble  servant.  Oh, 
how  vividly  and  ludicrously  he  described  my  pantomimic 
gesticulations ;  leaping  like  a  kangaroo  and  howling  like 
a  wolf.  He  never  had  before  seen  any  person  who  pro- 
fessed sanctification,  therefore,  taking  me  as  a  sample, 
he  withered  and  dissected  without  distinction  or  mercy, 
drawing  liberally  and  copiously  on  his  imagination. 

The  pastor  who  was  so  anxious  to  have  a  revival  and 


272  Autobiography   0* 

build  up  his  church,  feeling  that  it  was  a  death-blow  to 
all  of  our  hopes,  v;ept  unbidden  tears  while  reading  it. 
Then  he  said,  "Brother  Godbey,  I'm  going  around  to 
y  see  the  people  and  straighten  this  up,  telling  them  that 
I  know  you  to  be  a  man  of  good  standing  in  the  Ken- 
tucky Conference  and  all  this  utterly  without  founda- 
tion." I  said  to  him,  "Brother,  are  you  not  willing  for 
me  to  have  a  say-so  in  this,  as  I  am  the  one  concerned?" 
This  question  he  answered  gushingly  in  the  affirmative. 
So  said  I,  "Please  do  not  offer  one  word  of  apology,  but 
let  it  alone,  just  as  it  is."  He  was  surprised  that  I  was 
not  willing  for  him  to  defend  me,  and  asked  my  reason. 
"Oh,"  I  said,  "when  Satan  takes  the  open  field  against 
God  Almighty,  I  want  you  to  keep  hands  off  and  give 
God  a  chance  to  whip  him."  The  truth  of  the  matter 
was  I  knew  that  writing  was  the  very  thing  to  give  me  a 
congregation,  which  was  so  indispensable  to  my  useful- 
ness, as  the  best  mechanic  can  never  build  a  fine  edifice 
without  lumber,  brick  and  mortar. 

Within  forty-eight  hours,  not  only  were  the  seats  all 
filled  and  crowded  in  that  large  house,  but  twice  as  many 
people  were  in  it  as  could  occupy  the  seats.  They  were 
literally  crammed  and  jammed.  Wherever  a  foot  could 
get  room,  there  it  was  on  the  floor,  every  aisle,  nook  and 
corner  being  packed  and  the  multitude  actually  inun- 
dating the  house  till  many  had  to  go  away  or  stay  out, 
and  it  was  mid-winter  and  very  cold.  I  knew  that  ludi- 
crous sarcasm,  burlesque,  wit  and  ridicule  indulged  in 
by  the  editor  was  the  very  thing  to  attract  the  people 
and  give  me  an  audience.  It  had  worked  literally  to  a 
charm.  Then  God  gave  me  grace  to  take  Mt.  Sinai  into 
the  pulpit  and  say  to  Him,  "Now,  in  mercy,  furnish  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  273 

thunderbolts,  lightning-shafts  and  earthquakes,  and  I 
will  toss  them  from  the  tips  of  my  fingers  to  the  best 
of  my  ability."  Therefore  I  lifted  the  mask  from  the 
gapping  vortex  of  yawning  Hell  and  shook  the  people 
over  it  with  a  strong  hand,  till  conviction  settled  down 
on  them  like  a  nightmare,  revealing  judgment,  eternity 
and  damnation,  in  all  of  their  gorgon  horrors,  till  they 
crowded  and  filled  the  altar  all  around  and  soon  began 
to  pass  triumphantly  from  death  to  life  with  jubilant 
shouts  of  victory.  That  old  city  had  never  been  visited 
by  a  glorious  Pentecostal  revival  in  the  memory  of  that 
generation. 

Another  editor  of  the  daily  paper  at  once  turned  in 
on  my  side,  defending  me  with  all  his  might,  and  saying 
to  his  neighbor,  who  had  criticised  me  so  unsparingly, 
that  he  ought  to  appreciate  me  for  my  work's  sake.  He 
observed  that  my  predecessors  had  come  hither  and 
standing  in  the  pulpits  had  preached  their  studied,  elo- 
quent discourses,  and  I  had  come  in  my  plain,  blunt, 
rough  style,  vacating  the  pulpit,  leaping  and  indulging 
in  what  he  called  pantomimic  gesticulations  and  yet  had 
done  more  good  than  all  of  them  he  had  ever  known. 
Then  the  other  editor  came  back  at  him,  stating  that 
he  was  all  at  random,  and  did  not  know  what  he  was 
talking  about.  He  said  he  himself  had  been  there  and 
found  me  without  a  congregation  and  knew  I  could  never 
do  any  good  without  people  to  preach  to;  his  writing 
had  stirred  up  the  people  and  brought  me  the  crowd; 
therefore  he  was  the  best  friend  I  had.  He  went  on  to 
say  that  if  he  had  fed  me  on  milk  and  sugar  compliments 
like  editor  number  two,  I  never  would  have  done  any 
good,  but  he  had  given   me  the  very  advertisement  I 


274  Autobiography    op 

needed  to  bring  me  the  crowd  and  give  me  a  chance. 
So  these  two  papers  gave  onr  meeting  the  best  possible 
advertisement,  and  all  gratuitously. 

Professor  Henry,  of  S.  E.  M.  M.  College,  early  in 
the  meeting  when  I  was  digging  so  deep,  striking  so 
hard  and  shooting  so  straight,  took  me  aside  for  con- 
versation, begging  me  to  go  away,  stating  that  the  Meth- 
odists had  nothing  there  but  a  mere  hope  and  I  was 
destroying  all  that.  I  asked  him  why  he  did  not  go  to 
the  pastor  who  had  called  me  and  ask  him  to  discharge 
me,  as  in  that  case  I  would  certainly  go.  He  said  he 
had  done  that  very  thing  and  the  pastor  said  they  had 
nothing  to  lose,  but  everything  to  gain,  by  just  letting 
me  go  my*  own  way  ;  consequently  he  refused  to  dis- 
charge me.  After  the  power  came,  this  brother  was 
perfectly  delighted  with  the  meeting  and  begged  me  to 
go  and  board  with  him. 

While  the  glorious  revival  was  sweeping  along  in  Cape 
Girardo,  Pastor  Johnson  came  from  Charleston,  a  beau- 
tiful city  down  the  river,  opposite  Cairo,  111.,  in  the  center 
of  the  county.  The  doctrine  and  experience  of  sanctifica- 
tion  were  a  perfect  novelty  in  all  that  country,  having 
never  been  preached  there  before  Therefore  it  struck 
the  people  surprisingly  and  sensationally.  When  Brother 
Johnson  reached  the  meeting  at  the  Cape,  the  altar  was 
piled  and  packed  with  seekers  and  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  was  resting  on  them,  mighty  to  save  and  sanctify. 
Upon  entering  the  room  he  met  the  power  like  a  tornado, 
and  having  heard  that  sanctification  was  preached  and 
sought  in  that  meeting,  he  shouted  aloud  as  he  ran  and 
fell  at  the  altar,  "I  will  have  it  or  die."  It  proved 
significantly  true;  he  did  both  receive  it  and  die. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  275 

He  then  engaged  us  to  hold  a  meeting  for  him  in  his 
large  church  in  Charleston.  This  was  a  wonderful  meet- 
ing; it  proved  to  be  a  great  and  glorious  revival  like  the 
preceding  one,  crowned  with  a  hundred  bright  conver- 
sions and  a  number  of  sanctifications,  though  the  people 
stood  somewhat  dazed  over  the  novelty  and  through  cur- 
iosity, as  it  had  so  long  been  dropped  out  of  the  pulpit 
that  it  had  actually  become  strange  all  over  the  country. 
In  Charleston  the  meeting  stirred  up  a  great  popular 
sensation,  two  newspapers  again  taking  hold  of  it  with 
all  their  might,  the  one  in  the  negative,  criticizing  it,  and 
the  other  in  the  affirmative,  commending  and  eulogizing 
it.  The  large  house  in  which  we  met,  containing  about  a 
thousand  people,  was  densely  packed  all  the  time,  and  the 
omnipotent  Holy  Spirit  copiously  rested  on  the  congre- 
gation in  mighty  conviction  and  tremendous  upheavals 
during  those  times. 

I  always  carried  with  me  one  or  two  red  hot  young 
Kentuckians,  not  to  do  the  preaching,  for  I  did  all  of 
that,  day  and  night,  but  to  turn  them  loose  like  cyclones 
of  fire  to  run  the  devil  out  of  the  community. 

During  that  meeting  the  wonderful  sensation  brought 
out  all  sorts  of  people  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  going 
to  meeting  at  all.  That  is  the  great  argument  in  favor 
of  a  mighty  sweeping  revival ;  it  will  reach  so  many 
people  who  are  utterly  inaccessible  to  the  ordinary  means 
of  grace.  While  the  fire  baptized  people  were  running 
all  over  the  house  during  the  altar  service,  one  of  these 
flaming  Jehus,  led  by  the  Spirit,  ran  on  a  hard  infidel  and 
appealed  to  him  about  his  soul.  He  repelled  him  ab- 
ruptly, notifying  him  that  he  was  an  infidel  and  did  not 
believe  anything  that  those  people  were  preaching  and 


276  Autobiography   op 

professing,  and  had  not  been  to  meeting  in  fifteen  years; 
but,  having  heard  so  many  strange  things  about  this 
meeting,  he  had  come  through  sheer  curiosity  which  he 
had  already  satisfied  and  therefore  would  come  Ho  more. 
young  man  continued  his  burning  appeal,  saying, 
'"li.e  Bible  is  just  as  true  if  you  don't  believe  it  as  if 
you  do,  and  you  are  going  to  be  eternally  damned  because 
you  don't  believe  it."  Then  he  poured  on  him  a  fresh 
volley  of  red-hot  Bible  shot.  The  infidel  responded,  "Go 
on  and  find  somebody  that  believes  what  you  say,  for  I 
am  an  infidel  and  don't  believe  any  of  it,  and  you  are 
losing  your  time  on  me."  But  the  young  man  gave  him 
another  tremendous  volley,  letting  loose  on  him  a  regu- 
lar gattling  gun  Again  he  tried  to  repulse  him,  saying, 
"I  am  an  infidel  and  don't  believe  anything  you  are  telling 
me."  Then  he  said,  "I  have  nothing  to  do  with  your 
infidelity;  my  business  is  to  tell  you  what  God  says  in 
this  Bible,  which  is  just  as  true  if  you  don't  believe  it 
as  if  you  do  You  are  going  to  be  eternally  damned  in 
Hell  because  you  don't  believe  it,  for  the  Word  says, 
'He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.'  "  Then  convic- 
tion struck  the  infidel  like  lightning,  and  breaking  down 
he  came  to  the  altar  and  had  an  awful  hard  struggle 
praying  to  God  an  hour  and  a  half,  when,  arising  with 
shouts,  he  said,  "You  must  excuse  me  to  run  home  and 
bring  my  wife,  for  she  has  wanted  to  get  religion  a  long 
time  and  I  would  not  let  her."  So  he  went  after  her 
and  in  due  time  she  found  the  Lord  and  shouted  with 
him  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  mention  this  confirma- 
tory of  the  conclusion  that  we  are  not  to  be  discouraged, 
but  to  preach  the  flaming  truth  of  God  whether  people 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  277 

hear  or  forbear,  trusting  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  to  work 
in  them  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  own  good  pleasure. 

Owensboro  is  a  beautiful  city  of  fifteen  thousand  (and 
now,  doubtless,  doubled,  as -our  meeting  was  twenty-five 
years  ago).  This  meeting  was  in  the  Methodist  Church, 
scaling  eight  hundred  and  with  a  membership  of  five 
hundred.  The  pastor  who  called  me  was  a  noble  spirit- 
ual man  and  is  now  in  Heaven.  His  predecessor,  who 
had  been  there  four  years,  though  a  Methodist  D.  D., 
was  a  Unitarian  skeptic,  ignoring  and  ridiculing  the 
deep  things  of  God  and  the  mighty  works  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  This  city  is  the  greatest  whiskey  emporium  in 
Kentucky.  This  pastor  had  manipulated  during  his 
quadrennium  to  get  nearly  all  of  the  offices  on  his  board 
filled  by  wholesale  whiskey  merchants.  Of  course  the 
church  was  in  a  deplorable  condition  ;  had  run  away  into 
worldliness.  unspirituality  and  wickedness  of  all  kinds. 

During  the  days  of  my  physical  vigor,  I  always  worked 
by  the  job  and  not  by  the  day  nor  the  week,  making  it 
a  rule  to  stay  till  the  walls  of  Jericho  fell  down  flat,  let 
the  time  be  long  or  short  When  I  began  in  this  church, 
of  course  Satan  was  terrifically  and  impregnably  forti- 
fied in  it.  The  very  citadels  of  damnation  confronted 
me  within  and  without.  Of  course  I  had  to  meet  the 
situation  as  God,  by  His  Word  and  Spirit,  revealed  it 
to  me,  night  and  day  having  before  me  the  terrible  or- 
deals of  the  Judgment  Day.  The  contract  was  heavy 
and  the  conflict  terrible.  I  preached  night  and  day  and 
during  vacation  hours  ran  everywhere  praying  for  them 
in  their  houses  and  preaching  the  living  Word  face  to 
face. 

We  were  moving  along  in  the  third  week  of  the  meet- 


278  Autobiography    of 

ing;  some  had  been  converted  and  a  few  sanctified. 
Among  the  latter  was  a  prominent  church  officer  who 
prayed  through  and  received  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  fire  about  two  or  three  o'clock  A.  M.,  then 
put  out  in  those  dead  hours  of  the  night  running  over 
the  city  shouting,  and  hunting  up  his  friends  and  telling 
them  the  wonderful  news.  Really  the  knock-down  power 
had  begun  to  fall  on  the  people.  The  rich,  worldly  mem- 
bers, and  especially  those  whiskey  officers,  concluded  that 
they  could  stand  it  no  longer  and  ordered  the  pastor  to 
send  me  away.  For  some  time  the  pastor  had  been 
yielding  to  their  pressure  and  holding  his  hand  heavy 
on  me,  doing  his  best  to  moderate  me.  The  crisis  ar- 
rived, and  he  notified  me  that,  while  he  knew  I  was  right 
and  doing  what  was  needed  there,  he  would  have  to  re- 
quest me  to  discontinue  my  work,  thus  yielding  to  the 
heavy  pressure  of  those  rich  people.  Of  course,  as  he 
had  called  me,  I  was  subject  to  his  bidding,  therefore  I 
acquiesced  without  a  word  and  proceeded  to  get  ready 
to  go  to  the  next  county-seat  up  the.  river,  where  they 
were  calling  me  urgently.  While  I  was  packing  my 
trn^k  and  preparing  to  leave,  this  officer  who  had  been 
so  wonderfully  sanctified,  accompanied  by  others  whose 
souls  had  also  been  blessed  with  salvation,  came  to  me 
leading  the  pastor  with  them  and  told  me  to  quit  all  of 
my  preparations  to  leave;  that  they  had  gotten  into  the 
fight  and  it  had  to  go  through,  and  I  could  not  go  until 
victory  for  those  five  hundred  members  and  the  many 
unsaved  in  their  families  had  come.  Then  turning  to 
the  pastor,  in  my  presence  they  said  to  him,  "Dear 
Brother,  you  cannot  send  this  man  off  till  the  war  is  over 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  279 

and  victory  won.  Hold  us  responsible  for  his  continu- 
ing the  meeting." 

All  this  time  the  good  pastor  was  weeping  bitterly, 
and  he  said  to  me  that  it  seemed  that  he  was  bound  to 
see  a  permanent  division  in  his  church.  There  he  was 
between  two  fires,  the  irreligious  people  in  his  church 
urging  him  to  send  me  away,  and  the  godly  element 
protesting  positively  against  my  departure  and  saying 
unequivocally  that  I  could  not  leave  till  the  devil  was 
defeated.  Such  was  the  burden  of  the  conflict  on  the 
heart  of  the  pastor  that  he  went  to  bed  the  next  night 
instead  of  coming  to  meeting.  That  suited  me  precisely, 
because  he  kept  his  hand  heavy  on  me  when  there.  As 
he  was  absent  I  was  free  as  Gabriel.  Truly  if  ever  I 
did  my  best,  it  was  then,  as  I  knew  it  was  my  God-sent 
opportunity  to  storm  Satan's  batteries  and  break  his 
ranks.  That  was  one  of  the  memorable  occasions  of  my 
life.  I  had  preached  for  three  weeks  and  there  was  awful 
conviction  on  the  people.  It  was  like  a  dam  holding  a 
great,  heavy,  pent-up,  swelling  tide  till,  no  longer  com- 
petent to  bear  the  pressure,  it  had  to  break  and  let  the 
flood  sweep  on. 

When  I  made  my  appeal  a  hundred  mourners  came  to 
the  altar.  Truly  the  walls  of  Jericho  fell  down  flat  that 
very  night.  Then  all  of  the  opposition  evanesced  and  we 
went  on  for  three  weeks  lonrer  and  saw  the  mighty 
works  of  God. 

The  pastor,  having  survived  his  heart  sickness,  re- 
turned to  the  battle-field,  girded  for  the  conflict. 

The  results  of  the  campaign  were  really  glorious ;  two 
to  three  hundred  professing  conversion  and  reclamation 
and,  though  sanctification  was  so  new  to  them,  before  we 


280  Autobiography   01 

got  away  from  that  country  many  were  testifying  to  the 
experience. 

Our  next  meeting  was  at  Hawesville,  the  next  county- 
seat  up  the  river.  There  the  Lord  gave  us  one  hundred 
and  three  bright  conversions,  a  glorious  revival  of  the 
membership  and  a  goodly  number  claiming  the  sanctified 
experience.  It  was  in  every  respect  a  glorious  victory 
for  the  cause  of  God.  The  dear  saints  of  Owensboro 
chartered  a  steamboat  and  faithfully  attended  the  meet- 
ing, giving  us  glorious  help. 

We  also  went  from  there  up  to  Clover  Port,  the  next 
county-seat  on  the  river  bank,  where  the  Lord  also  gave 
us  a  glorious  revival  with  one  hundred  professions  of 
conversion  and  a  blessed  work  of  sanctification.  Those 
were  days  of  signal  victories,  marking  my  pilgrimage 
with  delectable  souvenirs  of  God's  mighty  works. 

That  was  the  last  year  of  my  identity  with  my  dear 
old  Conference  in  which  I  was  born  and  reared.  This 
year  the  presiding  elder  had  relieved  me,  filling  my  place 
with  another  man,  who  was  not  a  member  of  the  Con- 
ference, and  consequently  received  no  appointment  but 
desired  one.  At  the  close  of  this  year,  when  the  breth- 
ren of  my  Conference  requested  Bishop  McTieyre  to 
confine  me  to  the  Kentucky  Conference,  and  he  requested 
me  to  read  my  report  which  I  had  prepared,  when  he 
heard  the  mighty  works  which  God  had  been  doing 
through  my  humble  instrumentality,  he  utterly  refused 
to  assume  the  responsibility  to  confine  me  to  my  own 
Conference  or  any  other;  but  heroically  pulling  the 
bridle  off,  turned  me  loose  in  the  whole  connection. 
Thus  the  Lord  has  been  enlarging  my  field  of  labor.  I 
now  realize,  as  John  Wesley  so  often  said,  and  we  see 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  281 

it  superscribed  over  his  bust  in  Westminister  Abbey, 
"The  world  is  my  parish."  I  have  never  been  an  ir- 
"  regular  evangelist,  but  always  in  harmony  with  the  ap- 
pointing power  of  the  Church  in  which,  God  by  His 
providence,  gave  me  birth,  both  physical  and  spiritual 
and  gloriously  sanctified  me.  Thus  in  His  mercy,  He 
has  permitted  me  already  to  transcend  my  three  score 
years  and  ten. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  in  1884  I  was  called  to 
Paris,  Tenn.,  where  I  found  an  old,  aristocratic,  pro- 
slavery  church  of  four  or  five  hundred  members,  full  of 
factions,  each  one  wanting  the  pre-eminence,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  grieved  away,  till  there  had  been  no  revival 
in  a  generation.  It  so  happened  that  the  pastor  was 
a  transfer  from  old  Virginia,  and  a  noble  old-style 
Wesleyan  in  doctrine.  Though  solidly  orthodox  on 
sanctification  as  taught  by  the  Methodist  fathers,  he 
did  not  enjoy  the  experience,  but  was  of  course  a  nom- 
inal lifelong  seeker  of  Christian  perfection. 

Southern  people  from  time  immemorial  have  been 
noted  for  their  hospitality.  This  day  there  is  a  decisive 
contrast  in  that  respect  between  the  North  and  the  South. 
In  the  former,  I  generally  board  myself,  as  a  matter  of 
choice,  because  it  does  not  seem  convenient  as  a  rule 
for  the  people  to  entertain  the  preachers.  In  the  latter, 
as  a  rule,  the  members  want  the  preacher  to  board  with 
them  and  I  have  to  adopt  the  style  of  the  old-time  school 
teachers,  who  always  boarded  among  the  scholars.  In 
this  case  I  was  impressed  with  the  exceptional  pheno- 
menon, as  no  one  invited  me  to  enjoy  the  hospitality  so 
characteristic  of  Southern  people,  but  the  pastor  boarded 
me  and  my  two  stalwart,  red-hot  Kentuckians. 


282  Autobiography    op 

God  has  wonderfully  blessed  me  with  that  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  denominated  "discernment  of  spirits."  1 
Cor.  12:8-11.  As  my  coming  had  been  thoroughly  ad-, 
vertised,  the  people  gave  me  a  splendid  curiosity  con- 
gregation to  begin  with.  I  always  made  it  a  rule  to 
preach  for  conviction  with  all  my  might,  praying  in- 
cessantly that  God  would  send  it  before  the  curiosity 
had  evanesced.  If  I  could  possibly  couple  convic- 
tion on  to  curiosity,  I  would  hold  my  congregation. 
In  my  general  diagnosis  of  the  large  crowd  that 
first  looked  me  in  the  face,  I  found  but  the  small- 
est number  of  people  who  seemed  to  be  walking  in 
the  light  of  God's  countenance.  Of  course,  many  of 
them  had  been  saved  in  former  years,  but  the  Spirit  had 
been  grieved  away  and  the  darkness  of  condemnation 
had  again  supervened.  Satan,  as  he  always  does,  had 
captured  them  with  his  favorite  lassoes  of  dead  legal- 
ism, cold  ritualism,  lifeless  formality  and  hollow 
hypocrisy. 

As  upon  this  early  diagnosis,  I  found  about  nine-tenths 
of  the  people  under  condemnation,  with  but  a  few  en- 
joying the  experience  of  full  salvation,  therefore  the 
Spirit  told  me  to  take  Mount  Sinai  for  my  pulpit,  and 
He  would  furnish  the  thunderbolts,  lightning-shafts, 
earthquakes,  cyclones  and  typhoons.  Consequently  I 
stood  before  that  crowded  assembly,  tossing  Heaven's 
flaming  artillery  from  the  tips  of  my  fingers,  preaching 
for  conviction  with  all  my  might,  and  keeping  in  mind 
the  homely  maxim  of  Sam  Jones,  "Never  try  to  scald 
hogs  till  you  get  the  water  hot,"  as  in  that  case  you  will 
set  the  hair,  so  you  cannot  get  it  off.  I  was  making  no 
altar  calls,  as  I  did  not  feel  led  to  wear  myself  out  on 


Ruv.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  283 

nominal  seekers,  insufficiently  convicted  for  a  really 
genuine  conversion.  I  was  constantly  shaking  over  Hell 
all  the  people  in  the  churches  or  out  of  them  indiscrim- 
inately, who  had  not  the  clear  witness  of  the  Spirit  to 
a  bona  fide  Scriptural  regeneration,  actually  knowing 
their  salvation  as  consciously  as  their  very  existence. 
My  clear,  straight  and  constant  exegesis  of  real  matter- 
of-fact,  know-so,  personal  salvation,  was  too  high  for 
many  of  the  church  members  to  appropriate,  therefore 
they,  along  with  the  outsiders,  had  to  take  their  place 
under  the  black  banner  of  condemnation,  exposed  to 
wrath  and  Hell,  world  without  end. 

As  the  days  went  by,  the  audiences  kept  up  splendidly, 
crowding  the  house  and  listening  spellbound.  At  the 
end  of  the  week  the  pastor  came  to  me  with  flowing 
tears  and  informed  me  that  he  would  have  to  send  me 
off,  as  his  official  board  had  notified  him  that  he  could 
not  retain  me  any  longer.  They  had  really  gone  back 
on  me  almost  from  the  beginning,  and  he  knew  it,  but 
was  so  anxious  for  a  revival  that  he  had  held  on,  hoping 
it  would  come  and  relieve  him.  All  of  this  time  I  had 
made  no  altar  calls,  but  was  preaching  with  all  my  might 
for  conviction ;  meanwhile  I  had  a  great  deal  of  prayer, 
diligently  testing  my  congregation  and  giving  all  who 
had  grace  enough  to  exercise  it  in  public  an  opportunity  to 
glorify  God  in  oral  prayer.  I  also  had  testimony;  giving 
all  an  opportunity  meekly  to  tell  what  God  had  done  for 
their  souls.  When  the  pastor  gave  me  my  discharge,  I 
acquiesced  without  a  word,  pronouncing  my  blessing 
upon  them,  and  proceeding  at  once  to  get  ready  for  the 
morning  train,  as  they  had  but  two  a  day  going  in  the 
direction  of  my  next  appointment.     It  so  happened  that 


284  Al  Tor.IOGR/^HY     OF 

my  young  men  could  not  get  their  washing  in  time  for 
the  morning  train,  therefore  we  had  to  postpone  till  four 
o'clock  P.  M.  Meanwhile  I  was  packing  my  trunk  and 
fixing  up  to  leave,  when  the  pastor  returned  to  my  room, 
accompanied  by  a  fine  looking  gentleman  in  the  prime  of 
life,  whom  he  introduced  to  me  as  his  presiding  elder. 
He  said,  "Quit  packing  that  trunk;  if  you  get  away  from 
here  in  a  month,  it  is  as  early  as  I  expect."  I  responded, 
"The  pastor  who  called  me  has  already  discharged  me, 
and  consequently  I  am  preparing  to  go."  Then  he  said, 
"As  presiding  elder  of  this  district,  I  have  rights  as  well 
as  the  pastor,  and  I  am  not  willing  to  let  you  leave. 
I  want  you  to  stay  here  a  month  yet,  and  then  I  have 
many  places  in  my  district  where  I  want  you  to  hold 
meetings."  I  asked  him  why  he  differed  so  widely  from 
the  pastor  in  reference  to  the  continuance  of  my  labors. 
He  responded,  "When  I  drove  into  the  city  this  morn- 
ing, the  members  of  our  church,  as  fast  as  they  saw  me, 
ran  out  of  their  business  houses  and  halted  me  in  my 
buggy  and  said,  'We  are  so  glad  you  have  come,  we 
have  been  wishing  you  would.'  'Why,  what  do  you 
want?'  'Oh,  we  are  in  a  heap  of  trouble;  and  so  much 
need  a  revival.  Our  pastor  called  a  man  to  help  us  in  a 
revival  meeting,  and  he  has  actually  ruined  us  all,  he  has 
preached  away  what  little  religion  we  had;  instead  of 
encouraging  us,  he  has  blued  us  to  death,  flooding  us 
with  discouragement  till  we  are  about  to  doubt  whether 
we  ever  had  any  religion,  and  he  puts  the  standard  so 
high  that  we  cannot  claim  it  now  if  we  ever  did  have  it. 
He  is  preaching  justification,  which  he  says  is  the  lowest 
standard  of  religion  which  can  possibly  give  people  a 
place  in  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  so  high,  that  people  do  not 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  285 

commit  sin;  besides  he  tells  us  that  justified  people, 
living  an  unsinning  life,  must  be  sanctified  wholly  before 
they  can  go  to  Heaven.  Besides,  he  is  so  plain  and 
rough,  preaching  Hell  and  damnation  all  the  time  so 
awfully  that  he  actually  scares  everybody.'  I  hear  a  gen- 
eral complaint,  the  people  saying  they  cannot  sleep  at 
night.  When  they  go  to  sleep,  they  are  awakened  with 
frightful  dreams,  in  which  they  see  Hell  opened  and 
black  devils  around  them,  and  are  awakened  by  awful 
nightmares.  When  I  asked  about  the  congregations,  they 
say  they  are  splendid;  our  big  house  is  crowded;  but 
they  are  the  hoodlums  and  the  low  class  of  people,  and 
other  denominations,  and  all  sorts  of  people."  Then  he 
said  to  me,  "The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  this  whole  town 
is  stirred  as  I  never  knew  it  and  I  have  been  intimately 
acquainted  with  it  thirty  years.  During  that  time  it  has 
never  had  a  revival  and  we  have  made  efforts  every  year 
and  they  have  all  proved  signal  failures.  We  never  have 
succeeded  in  getting  a  man  here  that  would  hold  a  con- 
gregation. We  have  tried  all  of  our  bishops;  they  have 
come  and  preached  themselves  out  of  a  congregation  in 
less  than  a  week.  They  tell  me  you  have  been  here  a 
week,  and  the  house  is  crowded  all  the  time.  But  they 
say,  'While  all  that  is  true,  the  whole  thing  is  against 
our  church.  He  is  so  awfully  rough ;  digs  us  up  so 
terrifically  that  outsiders  are  tickled  to  death  to  see  us 
all  get  blistered  and  peeled  so  unmercifully.  He  is  so 
terribly  hard  on  the  churches,  constantly  saying  that  all 
church  members  who  commit  sin  are  on  a  bee-line  to 
Hell.  Therefore  he  is  actually  sending,  not  the  other 
denominations,  to  Hell,  but  even  us  Methodists  because 
we  all  commit  some  sins,  of  course.    He  puts  the  stand- 


286  Autobiography    of 

ard  of  justification  so  high  that  he  brings  us  all  under 
condemnation  and  consigns  us  to  Hell;  and  then  he' is 
all  the  time  roaring  on  the  sanctification,  which  we  did 
not  know  we  had  to  have.  He  not  only  proved  it  with 
the  Bible,  but  seems  to  find  the  Methodist  doctrines  full 
of  it.  The  truth  of  it  is,  he  has  thrown  a  black  cloud 
over  all  the  churches  in  the  city,  and  put  religion  back 
so  far  that  we  are  afraid  we  will  never  get  over  it. 
We  saw  in  a  day  or  two  that  our  pastor  had  made  the 
fatal  mistake  of  calling  the  wrong  man.  We  have  been 
trying  several  days  to  get  our  pastor  to  close  the  meet- 
ing, thus  sending  him  off,  but  he  is  very  unwilling  to 
do  it  but  says  that  the  man,  though  in  a  rough,  plain 
way,  is  telling  us  all  the  very  truth  we  have  always 
needed,  and  that  he  certainly  has  the  Bible  and  the  Meth- 
odist doctrines  on  his  side,  in  everything.  Therefore  he 
tells  us  we  ought  to  bear  with  the  terribly  rough  and 
plain  manner  in  which  he  presents  it,  as  it  is  all  for  our 
good.  But  we  are  so  glad  you  have  come,  and  of  course 
you  will  send  him  away,  for  we  are  so  sorry  he  ever 
came  because  he  has  discouraged  us  so  instead  of  reviv- 
ing us,  as  we  expected ;  he  has  just  about  convinced  us 
that  if  we  ever  had  any  religion,  it  is  all  gone,  and,  as 
he  often  says,  we  are  on  a  bee-line  to  Hell.  He  has 
so  much  to  say  about  empty  ritualism,  lifeless  legalism, 
dead  formalism,  and  hollow  hypocrisy.  The  fact  of  the 
matter  is,  his  talk  is  so  awful,  and  actually  insulting, 
that  we  resolved  to  never  hear  him  any  more ;  but  some- 
how, though  we  feel  so  bad,  and  his  preaching  makes  us 
feel  worse  and  worse,  yet  we  cannot  stay  away.  We 
have  been  thinking  that  surely  his  congregation  would 
leave  him,  but  we  are  astonished  at  the  way  they  all  hold 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  287 

on;  some  of  them  say  that  he  has  withered  them  so 
awfully  that  they  have  a  curiosity  to  hear  what  he  is 
going  to  say  next  time.'  " 

Then  the  presiding  elder  added,  "As  I  have  never 
known  the  old,  dead  town  so  stirred  in  the  last  thirty 
years,  mark  it  down,  you  cannot  leave.  Write  to  the 
people  to  whom  you  are  going  and  postpone  your  ap- 
pointment another  month,  for  something  wonderful  is 
going  to  come  out  of  this  thing;  and  as  to  our  church, 
it  has  been  dead  ever  since  I  have  known  it  and  all  re- 
vival efforts  have  signally  failed.  The  truth  of  it  is,  it 
is  divided  up  into  factions,  each  wanting  the  pre-emi- 
nence and  all  at  war  with  each  other.  So  you  go  ahead 
and  I  am  going  to  stay  with  you  awhile ;  and  though 
the  people  say  you  are  awfully  hot  and  rough,  please 
neither  cool  it  off,  nor  soften  it ;  but  if  you  have  any- 
thing hotter  and  rougher,  let  us  have  it."  So  I  ac- 
quiesced in  the  verdict  of  the  presiding  elder  and  went 
on  with  the  meeting. 

I  had  preached  for  a  week  straight,  constantly  on  Hell 
and  holiness,  proving  clearly  that  they  all  had  to  have 
one  or  the  other.  Without  a  clear  and  unmistakable 
experience  of  justification,  there  was  an  impassible 
mountain  and  unbridgeable  river  between  them  and  the 
attitude  in  which  it  was  possible  to  seek  sanctification. 
Pursuant  to  the  perfect  freedom  which  the  presiding 
elder  gave  me,  I  continued  to  take  Mount  Sinai  for  my 
pulpit,  pleading  with  God  to  furnish  all  the  ammunition 
He  wanted  me  to  use,  and  promising  faithfully  to  "cry 
aloud  and  spare  not,  showing  Israel  their  sins  and  His 
people  their  transgressions."  Therefore,  responsive  to 
the  prayers  of  the  presiding  elder,  God  gave  me  a  regu- 


288  Autobiography   op 

lar  gattfing  gun,  loaded  to  the  muzzle  with  red-hot  shot 
and  shell.  This  I  used  for  four  days  with  all  my  might, 
God  wonderfully  helping  me.  The  arrival  of  the  pre- 
siding elder  and  his  presence  in  the  meetings  seemed  to 
help  the  congregation,  and  seemed  to  augment  the  con- 
viction which  had  already  settled  upon  the  people  like  a 
nightmare.  Still  I  made  no  altar  calls,  but  conducted 
the  meeting  with  preaching,  much  prayer  for  conviction 
on  the  people,  and  free  testimony  for  everybody  who  had 
grace  enough  to  give  it. 

At  the  expiration  of  four  days,  and  eleven  days  from 
the  beginning,  God,  in  His  mercy,  descended,  raining 
fire  from  Heaven  on  the  whole  congregation  till  there 
was  a  general  break-down ;  many  people  actually  falling 
from  their  seats.  Then  for  the  first  time  I  opened  the 
altar,  and  it  took  half  of  that  large  auditorium  to  ac- 
commodate the  seekers  for  pardon,  reclamation  and 
sanctification.  Then  I  changed  my  tactics  altogether ; 
vacating  Sinai  I  went  at  once  to  Calvary.  Hitherto  T 
had  said  almost  nothing  about  love  and  mercy,  so  utterly 
engrossed  was  I  in  preaching  the  terrors  of  violated 
law ;  holding  all  transgressors  with  a  strong  hand  over 
the  burning  pit,  and  warning  the  wicked  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  Now  it  seemed  that  the  conviction  had 
actually  come  and  taken  possession  of  the  whole  con- 
gregation, till  everybody  was  crying  to  God  for  mercy. 
Therefore  it  was  an  auspicious  time  to  preach  the  Calvary 
Gospel,  the  dying  love  of  Jesus,  pointing  all  the  broken- 
hearted penitents  to  the  "Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world." 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  289 

"I  saw  One  hanging  on  the  tree, 

In  agonies  and  blood, 
Who  fixed  His  languid  eyes  on  me, 

As  near  the  cross  I  stood. 
Sure,  never  to  my  latest  breath 

Can  I  forget  that  look  ; 
He  seemed  to  charge  me  with  His  death, 

Though  not  a  word  He  spoke. 

"My  conscience  felt  and  owned  the  guilt, 

And   plunged   me   in  despair; 
I  saw  my  sins  His  blood  had  spilt, 

And  helped  to  nail  Him  there. 
A  second  look  He  gave  which  said, 

I  freely  all  forgive, 
My  blood  is  for  thy  ransom  paid ; 

I  died  that  you  might  live." 

I  preached  no  more  on  Hell  and  damnation,  as  I  felt 
so  sorry  for  the  people  writhing  under  conviction,  which 
had  settled  down  on  them  like  a  nightmare  from  the 
eternal  world.  They  looked  pale  as  corpses  and  in  spirit 
were  as  blue  as  indigo.  Despair  was  hovering  over  them 
on  raven  pinions  and  claiming  them  for  her  victims. 
Now  my  theme  became  the  wonderful  and  glorious 
vicarious  atonement  wrought  on  Calvary  by  the  dying 
agonies  of  God's  humiliated  Son,  who  vacated  the  throne 
of  His  glory,  and  descended  to  this  dark,  lost  world, 
spontaneously  to  die  for  the  Hell-deserving  millions  of 
this  Satan-dominated  earth;  and  all  because  He  loved 
us  so. 

"Oh,  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills, 
Their  lasting  silence  break; 
And  all   harmonious  human  tongues 
Iheir  Savior's  praises  speak. 

"Angels,  assist  our  mighty  joys, 
Strike  all  your  harps  of  gold, 
But  when  you  reach  your  highest  notes, 
His  love  can  ne'er  be  told." 


290  Autobiography   0? 

The  people  could  hardly  believe  that  I  was  the  same 
man  who  had  so  ferociously  exposed  all  their  sins,  spar- 
ing nobody  and  nothing-,  but  so  ferreting  out  their  black- 
iniquity,  which  they  thought  nobody  knew,  that  many 
were  puzzled  and  bewildered  to  know  who  had  told  me 
all  about  their  black  and  crooked  lives.  Soon  their  faith 
began  to  apprehend  and  appropriate  the  omnipotent 
grace  of  redeeming  mercy,  and  the  light  of  the  bright 
upper  world  began  to  fall  on  them  like  the  effulgent 
gleams  of  the  rosy-fingered  Aurora,  the  daughter  of  the 
dawn,  peering  above  the  Oriental  horizon ;  she  the  herald 
proclaiming  the  delectable  rising  of  the  gorgeous  king 
of  day,  climbing  the  skies  in  his  flaming  chariot,  drawn 
by  steeds  of  fire,  thus  chasing  away  the  dismal  darkness 
of  the  long,  dreary  night.  Thus  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness in  His  unutterable  glory  arose  on  those  broken- 
hearted penitents  with  healing  in  His  wings,  chasing 
away  their  dreary  midnight. 

Until  this  time,  I,  with  my  two  young  men,  had  lost 
no  time  in  visiting  the  people,  going  everywhere,  preach- 
ing on  the  street,  from  house  to  house,  and  doing  every- 
thing in  our  power  to  bring  the  people  to  God.  Now 
since  the  light  had  come  and  souls  were  passing  out  of 
darkness  into  light,  out  of  death  into  life,  out  of  despair 
into  hope,  the  glorious  Sun  of  righteousness  was  climb- 
ing the  beautiful  Orient  with  healing  in  His  wings, 
flooding  dozens,  scores  and  hundreds  of  weeping  peni- 
tents, backsliders  and  hungry  Christians  with  His  glor- 
ious effulgence,  and  wonderful  reactions  and  revolutions 
began  to  develop  on  all  sides.  People  rose  up  spontane- 
ously and  after  the  good  old  style,  characteristic  of 
Southern  hospitality,  took  us  all  to  their    homes    and 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  291 

strove  with  each  other  for  the  privilege,  as  they  wanted 
us  everywhere.  Meanwhile,  to  my  surprise,  many  pub- 
licly confessed  to  me  their  unkind  criticisms,  and  begged 
my  forgiveness ;  at  the  same  time  making  confessions  to 
me  and  others  and  mutually  asking  pardon.  Oh,  how  de- 
lightful to  see  those  old  factions  united  in  peace!  They 
who  had  filled  the  church  with  strife,  animosites,  bick- 
erings, calumniations,  talebearings,  emulations,  contro- 
versies, jealousies,  envy,  prejudice,  bigotry,  selfishness, 
self-love,  ambition,  avarice,  egotism,  and  many  other 
things  which  reflected  much  discredit  on  Christian  char- 
acter, fellowship,  philanthropy,  generosity,  hospitality, 
liberality,  and  all  the  beautiful  and  amiable  graces  which 
constitute  the  brilliant  constellation  which  shines  so 
brightly  in  every  true  Christian  character. 

The  meeting  ran  on,  all  told,  four  weeks.  One  hun- 
dred and  forty-three  were  gloriously  converted  and  a 
large  number  sanctified;  while  the  church  got  wonder- 
fully revived.  While  I  was  preaching  the  Sinai  Gospel, 
it  seemed  that  we  had  no  friends  there  at  all  and  many 
regarded  me  as  an  enemy.  But  the  reaction  was  so 
radical  and  complete  that  everybody  became  my  friend, 
all  classes,  even  the  slaves.  The  presiding  elder  threw 
open  his  whole  district  to  me  and  begged  me  hard  to 
traverse  it  and  hold  other  meetings.  This  I  did  to  the 
extent  of  my  opportunity,  as  I  was  flooded  with  calls. 

Soon  after  our  meeting  at  Paris,  we  went  to  Browns- 
ville, Tenn.,  which  is  said  to  have  the  largest  Methodist 
Church  in  the  Memphis  Conference.  There  of  course, 
as  usual,  I  began  preaching  the  Sinai  Gospel  in  order 
to  secure  conviction  on  the  people,  without  which  we 
can  neither  have  conversions,   reclamations  nor  sancti- 


292  Autobiography   otf 

fications.  Conviction  is  the  corner-stone  of  any  true 
revival.  A  revival  is  the  best  thing  in  the  world  and  a 
fuss  with  the  devil  the  next  best.  Rely  upon  it,  we 
will  have  the  revival  or  the  fuss  with  the  devil,  and 
the  bigger  of  either  the  better.  We  frequently  had  the 
latter,  winding  up  without  the  revival.  You  see  it  woul  1 
have  gone  that  way  at  Paris  if  the  presiding  elder  had 
not  come,  but  his  hand  was  on  me  and  held  me.  It  was 
always  a  question  whether  the  preacher  would  have  the 
grit  and  grace  to  hold  mc  while  I  preached  the  Sinai 
Gospel,  which  was  indispensable  to  conviction,  as  the 
people  dread  it  as  a  child  does  the  extraction  of  a  tooth. 
If  I  had  begun  on  the  Calvary  Gospel,  preaching  nothing 
but  the  dying  love  of  Jesus,  I  might  have  had  a  church- 
joining,  but  no  revival.  That  is  the  reason  why  so 
many  revivals  are  superficial,  and  evanescent,  because 
they  have  no  bottom.  As  a  rule,  almost  any  preacher 
would  let  you  preach  Sinai  if  his  people  would,  but  when 
it  comes  to  blowing  them  up  and  tearing  them  all  to 
pieces  with  dynamite,  they  flicker.  I  never  knew  a  case 
where  they  received  the  Sinai  Gospel  and  did  not  get 
convicted.  The  plan  of  salvation  is  perfect.  The  reason 
why  the  world  is  full  of  sinners  is  because  they  are  not 
convicted ;  if  they  were  truly  convicted,  like  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  they  would  refuse  to  eat  or  sleep  till  they  get 
saved.  The  province  of  the  Sinai  Gospel  is  to  reveal 
Hell  in  all  its  gorgon  horrors,  and  shake  people  over  it 
till  they  conclude  they  are  dropping  into  it ;  then,  in  every 
case,  you  will  see  thunderbolt  conviction,  followed  by 
radical  repentance  and  glorious  conversion. 

The  reason  why  genuine  revivals  in  the  churches  are 
not  at  all  common  is  because  the  Sinai  Gospel  has  gone 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  293 

out  of  the  pulpit;  the  reason  of  this  is  because  there  are 
so  many  unsaved  people  in  the  churches  that,  in  many 
instances,  they  have  the  control  of  them,  and  actually 
rule  out  the  Sinai  Gospel  of  Hell  and  damnation,  from 
the  simple  fact  that  it  renders  them  so  uncomfortable. 
They  require  their  preacher  to  comfort  them  and  make 
them  feel  good,  which  is  actually  helping  the  devil  to 
ease  them  down  to  Hell.  But  God  commands  us  rightly 
to  divide  the  Word  of  truth,  2  Tim.  2:  15.  That  means 
to  preach  the  Sinai  Gospel  to  sinners  and  backsliders  all 
the  time  until  you  get  such  a  conviction  on  them  that 
they  will  cry  to  God  night  and  day  till  He  comes  down 
and  delivers  them.  It  means  that  we  should  preach  the 
Calvary  Gospel  to  penitents,  till  they  are  enabled  by 
faith  to  receive  and  appropriate  the  dying  love  of  Jesus, 
in  which  case  they  invariably  get  gloriously  converted. 
It  also  means,  as  Wesley  commands  his  preachers,  to 
preach  to  Christians  perfection ;  constantly,  urgently,  and 
explicitly.  Then  it  means  that  we  should  preach  to  sanc- 
tified people  the  Transfiguration  Gospel,  i.  e.,  the  glor- 
ious appearing  of  our  blessed  Lord,  when  this  mortal 
shall  put  on  immortality  and  this  corruption  shall  put 
on  incorruption;  and  death  shall  be  swallowed  up  in 
victory. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  shocking  delinquencies,  which  are 
everywhere  characterizing  the  popular  pulpit.  The  Sinai 
and  Transfiguration  Gospels  are  even  dead  letters  in  the 
vocabulary  of  the  popular  preacher.  When  he  crowds 
into  his  little  sermonette  some  part  of  the  Gospel,  it  is 
generally  Calvary  and  sometimes  a  little  of  Pentecost. 
In  his  thirty  minutes  he  has  so  much  to  tell  the  people 
about  worldly  interests,  history,    the    strikes,    and    the 


294  Autobiography   o* 

political  phenomena,  that  he  has  not  much  time  for  the 
Gospel.  Any  person  who  will  candidly,  heroically,  and 
persistently  preach  the  Sinai  Gospel  will  bring  convic- 
tion on  the  people,  which  always  superinduces  not  only 
a  willingness  but  an  anxiety  to  be  saved,  and  a  readi- 
ness to  avail  themselves  of  every  open  door,  that  they 
may  fly  to  the  Savior,  and  get  a  real,  matter-of-fact,  per- 
sonal experience  of  salvation.  The  Sinai  Gospel  always 
stirs  Hell  and  raises  the  devil,  who  is  ready  to  fight 
everything  that  attempts  to  take  any  of  his  people  out  of 
his  hands.  Satan  is  neither  a  fool  nor  a  coward;  he 
knows  that  the  persistent  preaching  of  his  Hell,  with  its 
appalling  horrors,  will  foster  conviction  in  the  people 
so  that  they  will  be  no  longer  satisfied  with  citizenship 
in  his  kingdom,  which  simply  means  the  constant  liabil- 
ity to  drop  into  the  bottomless  pit. 

I  have  no  idea  how  often,  responsive  to  the  call  of  a 
Methodist  pastor,  I  have  gone  and  begun  preaching  in  a 
church,  when  his  members,  finding  the  fire  too  hot,  have 
forced  him  to  close  the  meeting  on  me ;  which  was  simply 
an  indirect  method  of  running  me  off.  In  my  own  Con- 
ference I  never  would  retreat ;  that  is  the  reason  why  I 
got  that  free  ride.  They  could  not  run  me,  therefore 
they  hauled  me.  Outside  of  my  own  Conference,  I  was 
always  exceedingly  deferential  to  t1^  pastor's  authority, 
therefore  when  he  wanted  me  to  leave,  I  always  did  it, 
frequently,  however,  God  raised  up  somebody  else  to 
hold  me,  as  in  the  case  at  Paris,  Tenn.  Frequently  the 
members  would  turn  the  bread  question  on  the  pastor, 
telling  him  if  he  did  not  send  me  off  they  wrdd  send 
him,  and  that  meant  for  him  not  only  to  forfeit  his  place 
but  his  living. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  295 

In  at  least  a  large  majority  of  the  calls  to  which,  as 
an  evangelist,  I  responded,  where  they  broke  down  under 
the  Sinai  Gospel,  and  drove  me  away,  i.  e.,  peremptor- 
ily closed  the  meeting,  which  meant  for  me  to  leave, 
if  they  had  only  borne  with  me  till  I  got  through  the 
Sinai  Gospel,  the  trouble  would  all  have  been  over.  But 
I  had  to  stand  on  Mount  Sinai  and  hurl  thunderbolts 
and  lightning-shafts  till  conviction  did  its  work;  other- 
wise we  could  have  no  real  salvation.  We  might  have 
held  a  meeting  in  which  people  would  join  the  church 
and  they  would  count  it  a  revival,  but  it  would  only 
have  been  nominal  and  superficial,  resulting  in  little  or 
no  permanent  good. 

In  case  of  no  revival,  we  simply  wound  up  with  a  fuss 
with  the  devil,  which  I  always  considered  the  next  best 
thing,  because  Satan  is  not  fool  enough  to  waste  his 
ammunition  on  the  wind,  but  always  shoots  at  something. 
When  you  stir  the  devil,  if  you  do  no  more,  and  see  no 
souls  saved,  you  ought  always  to  thank  God  and  take 
courage,  feeling  assured  that  your  labor  is  not  in  vain; 
you  have  cast  your  bread  upon  the  waters,  and  it  "shall 
be  gathered  not  many  days  hence." 

John  Wesley,  when  presiding  over  his  Conference  and 
hearing  the  reports  of  the  preachers,  always  made  it  a 
rule,  in  case  they  reported  nobody  converted  or  sancti- 
fied and  nobody  made  mad,  to  say,  "Well,  brother,  you 
have  mistaken  your  calling,  consequently  I  will  excuse 
you  from  another  appointment,  and  that  procedure  is 
corroborated  by  good,  solid  wisdom.  We  are  working 
for  results ;  therefore  if  nobody  gets  blessed  or  edified 
under  our  labors,  and  no  one  is  offended,  it  is  prima  facie 
evidence  that  we  are  not  really  called  of  God.     Satan 


296  Autobiography   op 

gives  us  no  soul  without  a  battle,  therefore  if  your 
preaching  converts  nobody,  offends  nobody,  sanctifies  no- 
nobody,  edifies  nobody,  set  it  down  you  have  mistaken 
your  calling,  because  the  Gospel  is  the  most  positive  and 
available  thing  in  the  universe;  it  always  strikes  fire.  If 
it  does  not  bring  Heaven's  fire  down,  it  is  sure  to 
bring  Hell  fire  up ;  but  as  a  rule  they  come  simultane- 
ously. When  God  sends  down  the  heavenly  fire,  Satan 
knows  it  means  detriment  to  his  cause.  Therefore  he 
stirs  Hell  and  brings  into  availability  his  heavy  a'rtillery; 
giving  up  no  soul,  save  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet." 

After  I  had  been  preaching  a  few  days  at  Browns- 
ville in  that  great,  aristocratic  Methodist  Church,  the 
dear  brother  pastor  as  usual  began  to  put  the  brakes  on 
me,  endeavoring  to  tone  me  down,  lest  I  might  give 
offense.  Of  course,  that  is  an  exceedingly  unwise  pro- 
cedure. If  you  send  for  a  man  to  fight  your  battle,  of 
course  you  want  him  to  win  your  victory.  Consequently 
you  make  a  great  mistake  when  you  put  manacles  on 
him,  and  do  not  let  him  fight  his  best.  You  not  only 
ought  to  be  willing  to  let  him  do  his  best,  but  be  ready 
to  help  him  in  the  fight  yourself  with  all  of  your  forces. 
Rest  assured  when  you  go  into  the  war  with  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil,  it  is  indispensable  that  you  bring 
into  availability  all  your  ransomed  powers,  because  you 
may  rest  assured  that  Satan  lays  under  contribution  all 
his  forces,  stygian  and  terrestrial,  and  is  sure  to  fight 
his  best,  because  man's  extremity  is  God's  opportunity; 
you  need  not  expect  God  to  come  to  your  relief  till  you 
actually  bring  into  availability  all  of  your  own  resources. 
It  is  so  in  seeking  pardon  and  sanctification,  as  well  as 


Rev    VV.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  297 

in  the  work  of  the  Lord  indiscriminately  for  the  salva- 
tion of  others. 

T  know  what  it  is  to  stand  alone  on  the  battlefield, 
day  after  day,  with  no  person  to  whom  I  could  speak 
sympathetically  or  judiciously.  Oh,  those  days  of  con- 
flict which  I  have  endured  bombarding  Hell's  batteries 
with  all  my  might,  while,  instead  of  helping  me,  the 
preacher  and  his  people  were  on  my  back,  and  I  had  to 
carry  them  and,  at  the  same  time,  make  the  best  of  it  I 
could,  with  the  combined  powers  of  men  and  devils.  The 
most  glorious  experiences  in  my  life  have  been  amid 
those  very  environments ;  encompassed  by  the  panoplied 
armies  of  his  Satanic  majesty,  not  only  including  the 
peers  of  pandemonium,  but  the  magnates  of  earth,  while 
the  dear  old  pastor  had  his  hand  on  me  like  a  mountain, 
trying  to  hold  me  down.  One  day  I  was  feeling  the 
conflict  most  obviously,  and  returning  from  the  after- 
noon meeting  as  usual  by  way  of  the  post-office,  the 
pastor,  having  arrived  a  few  minutes  earlier  and  received 
his  mail,  was  reading  a  letter  when  I  got  there.  I  ob- 
served his  tears  were  flowing  copiously.  Having  fin- 
ished, he  handed  it  to  me,  at  the  same  time  laying  his 
hand  on  me,  with  these  words,  "Now  do  as  you  please, 
you  are  free,  I  put  no  more  brakes  on  you."  He  let  me 
keep  the  letter  which  1  read  with  interest.  It  was  from 
Brother  Brookes  of  Paris,  with  whom  the  Lord  had 
so  wonderfully  blessed  my  labor  in  the  best  revival  which 
had  visited  them  in  fifty  years,  and  where  God  had  sent 
in  the  presiding  elder  to  liberate  me  from  the  embargoes 
put  on  me  by  the  people  through  their  pastor,  which  were 
about  to  culminate  in  my  dismissal  from  the  work. 

The   letter  went  on   to  say,  "I  take    it    for    granted 


2g8  Autobiography   op 

Brother  Godbey  is  with  you  and  your  meeting  is  in  pro- 
gress. I  do  not  expect  to  hear  of  any  victory  from  you, 
as  it  is  too  soon.  You  may  expect  the  thermometer  to 
fall  and  the  mercury  to  sink  lower  and  lower  till  you 
will  all  come  to  the  conclusion  that  you  have  made  a 
mistake  and  called  the  wrong  man.  I  want  to  tell  you 
beforehand  that  if  you.  come  to  that  conclusion  you  are 
wrong;  we  did  it  here,  unanimously  thinking  that  we 
had  made  a  mistake  and  called  the  wrong  man.  But 
now  we  all  know  that  the  mistake  was  ours,  and  that  we 
had  the  right  man  all  the  time,  and  the  work  that  made 
us  blue  was  just  as  important  as  the  work  that  made  us 
bright.  Therefore  when  you  see  the  mercury  falling  do 
not  be  jostled;  it  will  rise  again,  and  rise  higher  than 
you  ever  thought  it  could  get,  till  we  all  to  glory  go." 

When  the  pastor  read  that  from  his  brother,  who  had 
just  passed  through  the  same  ordeal,  he  then  took  all  the 
brakes  off  and  made  me  feel  free  as  Gabriel.  Then  we 
moved  on ;  God  wonderfully  used  the  hard,  flinty,  Sinai 
Gospel  with  its  keen  New  Jerusalem  blade.  In  due  time 
the  altar  was  crowded  with  seekers.  The  Holy  Ghost 
descended  on  the  people  in  unstinted  measure,  and  the 
glorious  revival  rolled  over  the  church,  attended  by  hun- 
dreds converted,  reclaimed  or  sanctified. 

We  give  you  one  more  case  in  dear  old  Tennessee,  the 
twin  sister  of  beloved  Kentucky,  whose  "Old  Kentucky 
Home"  I  hear  the  people  sing  about  in  every  country 
under  Heaven,  as  well  as  on  ships  plowing  every  ocean. 

I  was  called  to  preach  in  a  camp-meeting  in  East 
Tennessee,  about  eighty  miles  from  Knoxville.  I  ar- 
rived Saturday  afternoon  and  was  happy  to  find  one  of 
our  noble  holiness  evangelists  had  preceded  me  on  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  a.  M.  299 

field  of  battle.  He  was  preaching  sanctification  all  the 
time  and  it  had  been  his  constant  theme,  so  I  was  in- 
formed, from  his  arrival.  A  few  people  were  seeking 
holiness.  The  first  service  after  my  arrival  was  Satur- 
day evening.  The  crowd  was  very  large  and  attentive; 
the  brother  preached  on  sanctification,  and  winding  up 
asked  me  if  I  had  anything  to  say.  I  got  up  on  a  bench 
and  surveyed  the  multitude  seated  beneath  the  canvas, 
while  many  who  seemed  to  have  been  crowded  out  were 
standing  around  in  the  beautiful  silvery  light  of  the 
moon  outside. 

When  I  surveyed  the  audience,  the  Holy  Spirit  that 
moment  flashed  on  me  His  extraordinary  gift  of  discern- 
ment of  spirits,  1  Cor.  12:8-11,  in  whose  clear  illumina- 
tion I  was  enabled  to  read  the  people  like  I  read  Greek 
and  Latin.  I  saw  that  we  were  in  a  hornet's  nest,  though 
no  one  had  posted  me  on  the  fact  that  there  were  no 
sanctified  people  in  that  country.  The  camp  had  been 
pitched  by  the  Holiness  Band  in  Knoxville,  about  a  dozen 
of  whom  had  come  out  to  lead  the  campaign  against 
Satan  and  his  myrmidons.  I  soon  learned  that  the  people 
in  the  community  had  unfortunately  become  prejudiced 
against  sanctification  and  the  holiness  people.  For  this 
unhappy  state  of  things,  the  preachers  were  principally 
in  fault,  who  were  violently  opposed  to  our  mode  and 
had  done  their  utmost  to  arouse  the  people  and  fortify 
them  against  the  influence  which  they  contemplated  dur- 
ing the  encampment.  This  was  abundantly  evidenced  by 
a  letter  I  soon  received  from  a  Methodist  pastor  for- 
bidding me  to  take  part  in  the  meeting  and  threatening 
me  with  prosecution  and  decapitation  if  I  did  not  desist 
at  once  and  leave  the  grounds.     Of  course,  I  did  not 


300  Autobiography   op 

comply  with  the  letter,  but  simply  responded  in  a  kind 
and  loving  invitation  to  him  to  attend  the  meeting,  and 
let  us  have  a  glorious  refreshing  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,  mutually  helping  each  other,  as  we  travelled 
along  the  King's  highway  to  the  land  of  the  blessed, 
where  sorrow  never  treads  and  pleasure  never  dies.  I 
heard  no  more  from  him,  and  know  not  whether  he  ever 
came  to  any  of  our  meetings  or  not. 

As  my  brother  evangelist  already  had  the  night  meet- 
ings, I  encouraged  him  to  keep  them  and  let  me  preach 
in  the  day  time.  This  he  did  till  the  following  Tuesday, 
when  he  left  for  another  field  of  labor;  of  course,  turning 
over  the  meeting  exclusively  to  me.  I  continued  to  teach 
the  blessed  Scriptures  to  the  dear  saints  during  the  day, 
but  preached  at  night  to  the  vast  audience,  and  of  course 
the  Sinai  Gospel  was  my  constant  theme.  I  kept  Hell 
uncovered,  as  flamiferous  and  horrific  as  I  could  paint  it 
in  the  bold  phraseology  of  God's  precious  Word.  T 
preached  from  such  texts  as,  "The  wicked  shall  be  turned 
into  Hell  with  all  the  nations  that  forget  God,"  Psalm  9: 
17,  and  our  Savior's  frequent  and  unmistakable  utter- 
ances on  the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  that  burneth  for- 
ever and  ever,  "where  the  worm  dieth  not  and  the  fire 
is  not  quenched." 

We  had  a  few  seekers,  but  the  crowds  were  proud, 
stubborn,  haughty,  rebellious,  and  even  defiant.  So  wo 
moved  on  through  the  week;  the  schedule  time  impend- 
ing expiration  the  ensuing  Sunday  night.  On  the  Sab- 
bath the  crowds  were  immense.  Morning  and  afternoon 
I  preached  mainly  to  the  Lord's  people  on  sanctificatiom, 
however   at   the  same   time   showing   up   a    clear   Bible 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  301 

As  the  evening  service,  which  uniformly  opened  at  sun- 
set, drew  nigh,  I  felt  we  were  approaching  the  crisis; 
yea,  all  day  I  felt  impressed  that  a  cyclone  had  left 
Heaven  and  was  travelling  that  way ;  when  it  would 
strike,  I  could  not  decisively  opine.  Having  opened 
with  the  setting  sun  and  spent  a  solid  hour  in  prayer 
and  testimony,  I  took  my  stand  to  preach  the  Word, 
aiming  still  to  give  them  Sinai,  as  God  in  mercy  might 
condescend  to  help  "a  feeble  worm  thrash  a  mountain." 
I  do  not  think  I  had  enunciated  my  text,  till  suddenly 
that  cyclone  struck  the  multitude;  the  people  all  around 
me  leaped  to  their  feet  and  not  a  few  fell  on  the  ground. 
As  yet  my  altar  invitation,  which  had  hitherto  received 
so  meager  a  response,  had  not  been  given,  but  the  people 
unhesitatingly  rushed  to  the  altar  from  all  parts  of  the 
auditorium,  quickly  filling  it  to  overflowing,  then  falling 
in  the  aisles  and  filling  them  up,  and  all  crying  aloud  for 
mercy. 

At  that  time  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  was  most  copi- 
ously poured  out  on  the  entire  assembly  in  His  con- 
victing, converting,  and  sanctifying  power,  and  abun- 
dantly rested  upon  the  sanctified  Knoxville  band,  in- 
spiring them  with  those  wonderful  extraordinary  gifts, 
(nine  in  all),  1  Cor.  12:8-11,  pursuant  to  these  super- 
natural enduements.  They  all  went  to  preaching  with 
all  their  might  to  the  people  nearest  them ;  thus  actually 
developing  a  regular  Pentecostal  scene.  I  tried  to  con- 
duct the  meeting  but  signally  failed ;  and  certainly  all 
right,  because  the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  charge,  managing 
it  in  His  own  infallible  way.  He  gave  every  one  the 
message  He  wanted  him  to  deliver,  as  well  as  the  utter- 
ance pertinent  to  that  delivery. 


302  Autobiography    op 

My  attention  was  arrested  by  a  stalwart  man  making 
for  the  altar  with  all  his  might.  He  fell  prostrate  in  the 
middle  of  the  aisle  and  roared  out  an  importunate  prayer 
with  stentorian  voice,  pleading  with  God  to  have  mercy 
on  his  lost  soul.  I  felt  anxious  to  speak  to  him  and  try 
to  help  him,  but  all  of  my  efforts  to  command  his  atten- 
tion signally  failed.  His  eyes  seemed  set  on  something 
far  away  beyond  everything  about  him,  as  if  looking 
into  the  ethereal  regions  with  all  the  power  of  sight  and 
diagnosis.  I  somehow  felt  constrained  to  linger  about 
him  and  make  him  a  subject  of  special  prayer;  mean- 
while souls  were  passing  triumphantly  into  life  and 
sweeping  victoriously  into  Beulah  Land  every  few  min- 
utes, bright  as  a  meridian  sunburst  and  with  tremendous 
shouts  of  victory. 

The  scene,  pre-eminently  Pentecostal,  swept  on  the 
even  tenor  of  its  way,  without  the  slightest  intermission, 
for  two  solid  hours  before  we  could  even  have  a  song. 
Meanwhile  there  were  many  centres  of  the  work  round 
about  and  all  moving  independently  of  each  other;  e.  g., 
while  some  were  up  shouting,  others  were  down  praying 
with  seekers  and  others  preaching  to  sinners  with  al! 
their  might  and  exhorting  the  weak  believers  to  plunge 
beneath  the  crimson  flood  that  washes  whiter  than  the 
snow,  and  then  to 

"Rise  to  walk  in  Heaven's  own  light 
Above  the  world  of  sin  ; 
With  heart  made  pure  and  garments  white; 
And   Christ   enthroned    within." 

After  this  stalwart  man  had  prayed  importunately  for 
about  fifty  minutes,  I  saw  an  amber  haze  begin  to  gather 
on  his  countenance;   it  continued   to  increase,   growing 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  303 

brighter  and  brighter  till  his  whole  physiognomy  was 
literally  illuminated  with  preternatural  splendor  and  his 
eyes  flashed  with  an  unearthly  brilliancy.  Then,  spring- 
ing to  his  feet,  he  clapped  his  hands  like  roaring  thunder. 
I  was  impressed  that  he  must  have  been  a  blacksmith, 
his  hands  were  so  heavy  and  brawny  and  his  entire 
physique  so  muscular.  Oh,  how  his  roaring  shouts  made 
the  welkin  ring!  About  this  time  he  caught  sight  of  me, 
having  hitherto  labored  in  vain  to  get  his  attention. 
Then  he  leaped  and  snatched  me  up,  tossing  me  as  if 
I  had  been  a  baby,  alarming  me  seriously,  lest  he  let  me 
fall  and  hurt  me.  While  tossing  me,  he  shouted  out,  "I 
am  the  man  who  cursed  you  last  Sunday,  calling  you 
the  stumbling-block  of  this  meeting,  and  saying  if  you 
had  stayed  away,  we  might  have  had  a  respectable  camp ; 
that  your  coming  had  disturbed  everything  and  made  the 
people  mad.  It  is  true  you  were  the  stumbling-block, 
and  I  stumbled  over  you  on  my  way  to  Hell.  Now  I 
have  gotten  turned  around  and  am  running  at  race  horse 
speed  the  other  way,  and  expect  to  never  let  up  till  I 
leap   through   the   pearly   gates   and  shout  the  victory." 

Though  the  camp-meeting  was  scheduled  to  close  that 
night,  there  was  no  chance,  for  it  would  run  by  its  own 
momentum.  I  had  to  leave  the  ensuing  morning  for 
another  engagement,  but  the  work  moved  on.  After- 
ward I  heard  of  many  souls  saved  and  sanctified. 

Reader,  it  is  your  privilege  to  enjoy  all  of  those  nine 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  you  see  catalogued  in 
1  Cor.  12:  8-1 1.  They  are  all  indispensable  in  their  place. 
In  this  important  emergency,  the  gift  of  spiritual  dis- 
cernment was  especially  utilized. 

In  1883,  the  pastor  of  my  old  church,  where  I  held  my 


304  Autobiography    of 

membership  when  a  little  boy,  and  where  my  father  had 
been  reared,  saved,  and  called  to  preach,  and  his  five 
brothers  had  also  entered  the  ministry,  called  me  re- 
peatedly to  come  and  help  him  in  his  work.  Pressure 
of  engagements  detained  me  a  long  time.  This  pastor, 
J.  H.  Williams,  was  a  Gospel  son  of  mine  and  always 
peculiar  for  his  low  estimation  of  his  own  ability  and 
consequently  inclined  to  despondency.  As  the  church 
was  in  a  somewhat  backslidden  state,  his  faithful  efforts 
to  stir  them  up  had  produced  reaction  against  him  and 
conduced  somewhat  to  his  depreciation  among  them. 
My  long  postponement  and  the  great  difficulties  which 
confronted  him  in  his  work,  and  which  his  diffidence 
conduced  to  magnify,  had  all  conspired  to  a  degree  of 
discouragement  which  had  collapsed  his  energies.  There- 
fore, somewhat  yielding  to  the  tempter,  he  had  concluded 
to  give  up  the  work,  quit  the  ministry  forever  and  return 
to  his  father's  farm.  When  I  arrived,  he  met  me  and 
told  me  he  had  no  appointment  for  me,  that  I  had  waiter! 
so  long  that  he  had  concluded  to  give  up  the  work,  quit 
the  ministry  forever  and  go  home.  I  remonstrated 
against  the  unhappy  verdict  he  had  given,  as  I  felt  it  to 
be  for  his  own  detriment  for  time  and  eternity.  Then  I 
asked  him  to  let  me  preach  anyhow ;  to  this  he  responded 
that  of  course  he  would  not  prevent  me,  but  if  I  did, 
it  would  be  entirely  upon  my  own  responsibility,  as  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  not  only  to  leave  this  work  but  to 
abandon  it  forever  However.  1  constrained  him  to  go 
with  me  to  the  place  and  attend  the  meetings  in  which 
I  would  do  al!  the  preaching  a;  well  as  conducting  them. 
As  we  had  no  announcement  beforehand,  the  audiences 
at  the  beginning  were  quite  small,  but  gradually  increased 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  305 

until  they  became  really  splendid,  eventually  crowding 
the  house  and  filling  all  the  environments.  That  meeting 
proved  phenomenal  in  the  extreme.  Such  was  the  won- 
derful power  of  the  Spirit  in  conviction  that  the  people 
fell  and  lost  the  power  to  stand  on  their  feet,  lying 
prostrate,  and  unable  to  rise  and  walk,  till  the  Holy 
Spirit  administered  to  them  the  resurrection  power.  Peo- 
ple would  fall  under  the  power  during  the  morning 
service,  and  lie  there  till  the  afternoon  or  until  night. 
Sometimes  during  the  night  meetings,  which  generally 
occupied  about  six  hours,  this  knock  down  power  would 
come  on  the  people,  disqualifying  them  to  stand  or  to 
walk,  and  they  would  have  to  stay  all  night.  As  it  was 
in  the  country,  and  the  people  came  from  a  distance,  as 
well  as  near  by,  many  were  unable  to  get  away  except 
as  carried  by  friends  in  vehicles,  which  was  very  seldom 
done,  because  the  land  was  rough  and  had  no  turnpikes, 
and  the  people  nearly  all  came  on  horses  or  walking. 

After  this  wonderful  Pentecostal  power  descended,  the 
meeting  became  like  Heaven,  in  the  fact  that  there  "con- 
gregations ne'er  break  up,  and  Sabbaths  have  no  end." 
The  workers  had  to  divide  up  the  time  among  them- 
selves, and  some  of  them  stayed  there  with  the  seekers 
who  had  lost  the  power  of  locomotion.  It  was  really  a 
marvelous  return  of  the  old-time  power,  which  not  only 
characterized  the  apostolic  age  but  early  Methodism. 
The  old  Methodists  called  it  "having  the  power/'  i.  e., 
the  power  of  God  to  such  an  extent  as  utterly  to  super- 
sede human  power. 

I  may  observe,  with  reference  to  the  discouraged 
young  pastor,  that  before  the  revival  was  over,  it  seemed 
as  though  his  members  would  pull  him  all  to  pieces,  for 


306  Autobiography   o? 

the  pure  love  of  God  which  had  fallen  in  showers  and 
filled  their  souls.  Though,  by  the  intervention  of  the 
enemy,  they  had  gotten  out  of  harmony  so  that  the  desire 
to  separate  was  mutual,  under  the  wonderful  baptism  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  they  all  received  such  a  copious 
Benjamin's  mess  of  sweet,  perfect  love,  that  he  changed 
his  mind,  not  only  remaining  with  them  till  the  close  of 
the  year,  but,  pursuant  to  their  request,  was  returned  and 
stayed  with  them  the  full  pastoral  limit  of  four  years, 
and  would  have  remained  longer  if  the  Lord  had  per- 
mitted. As  that  was  my  native  church,  Soule  Chapel, 
Pulaski  County,  Ky.,  I  can  never  forget  that  meeting 
which  gave  me  a  precious  souvenir  of  the  old-time  power, 
which  my  ancestors  had  enjoyed  at  that  place,  when  first 
thither  they  came,  felled  the  trees,  built  their  cabins  and 
erected  an  altar  to  the  God  of  their  fathers,  whom  they 
had  worshipped  beyond  the  Atlantic. 

In  my  ministry  I  have  often  seen  that  knock  down 
power.  In  this  meeting  while  preaching  to  the  house 
packed  and  jammed,  doors  and  windows  full,  and  many 
who  could  not  reach  any  position  of  convenient  audience 
taking  chances  out  in  the  yard,  while  thus  preaching,  I 
have  seen  them  fall  under  the  power  of  the  convicting 
Spirit  till  they  blockaded  the  aisles,  and  actually  this 
wonderful,  supernatural,  slaying  power  was  so  prevalent 
as  to  knock  those  standing  in  the  doors,  so  paralyzing 
them  that  they  could  not  get  away,  thus  blockading  the 
doors  and  the  aisles.  People  were  found  out  of  doors, 
prostrate  on  the  ground  and  utterly  unable  to  stand  on 
their  feet,  so  wonderful  was  the  slaying  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  holy  place. 

The  Lord   has   used   my  humble    instrumentality    to 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  307 

preach  sanctification  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
Mexican  border.  I  saw  these  extraordinary  phenomena 
in  all  parts  of  Texas,  and  especially  at  Waco  Camp-meet- 
ing. There,  in  the  early  years  of  its  history,  so  many 
would  lose  the  power  of  locomotion  that  we  found  it 
necessary  so  to  organize  the  workers  as  to  keep  some  on 
the  ground  all  the  time.  I  found  it  necessary  to  have 
my  lodging  at  least  half  a  mile  from  the  tabernacle,  as 
at  all  hours  of  the  night  the  vociferous  shouts  of  new- 
born souls  was  likely  to  awaken  me.  During  the  three 
months  He  let  me  preach  in  dear  India,  I  frequently  saw 
this  same  wonderful  slaying  power  among  the  natives. 
On  winding  up  a  meeting,  it  was  no  surprise  to  see  some 
of  our  seekers  utterly  incompetent  to  go  away.  In  Sister 
Ramabai's  great  work,  where  she  has  eighteen  hundred 
people  identified  with  her  educational  institutions,  nearly 
all  the  time  I  was  there  I  could  hear  them  praying  and 
shouting  all  night  after  I  had  preached  to  them.  At  the 
same  time  there  were  many  among  them  prostrate  under 
the  power,  and  unable  to  stand  or  to  walk. 

You  readily  see  the  Divinity  and  the  utility  of  these 
phenomena  ;  in  order  that  God  may  demonstrate  before 
the  popular  eye  the  infinite  superiority  of  His  power  to 
that  of  man.  It  is  exceedingly  gratifying  thus  to  witness 
God's  signal  mercy  to  the  poor  heathen,  thus  gloriously 
contra-distinguishing  Himself  from  the  pagan  gods,  who. 
to  an  ocular  and  an  auricular  demonstration,  are  utterly 
powerless.  The  present  year  (1906),  will  be  forever 
remembered  in  great  heathen  India  for  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  is  really  epochal  as  India's  Pente- 
cost. This  ought  to  prove  a  grand  inspiration  to  all 
friends   of   the    missionaries,    who    enjoy    the    glorious 


308  Autobiography    of 

privilege  of  living  in  delightful  America  and  using  the 
money  which  God  gives  them,  hy  proxy,  to  preach  to 
the  poor  heathens.  No  one  can  travel  among  them  and 
witness  the  power  and  presence  of  God  working  so 
mightily  and  mercifully  in  their  hearts  and  not  realize 
in  the  profoundest  depths  of  his  soul  the  consolatory 
fact  of  God's  superahounding  love  to  these  poor  children 
of  pagan  darkness. 

In  1800  and  1801  the  camp-meetings  at  Caneridge,  Ky., 
were  wonderfully  characterized  by  these  physical  pheno- 
mena. They  began  with  an  ordinary  bush  arbor,  as  was 
customary  in  that  day.  The  power  descended  on  them, 
knocking  them  down  on  all  sides,  and  causing  them  to 
jerk  in  a  really  phenomenal  manner.  The  long  hair  of 
the  women  amid  these  jerks  would  become  disheveled, 
and  crack  like  whip  lashes.  At  that  time  the  pioneers 
were  very  sparsely  dispersed  throughout  these  western 
states,  but  the  phenomena  of  this  camp-meeting  were  so 
extraordinary  as  to  attract  the  people  from  far  and  near, 
in  order  to  witness  scenes  hitherto  unknown  and  unheard 
of  in  the  memory  of  the  existing  generation. 

James  Finley,  living  up  in  Ohio  at  that  time,  aspired 
to  be  the  champion  athlete.  As  the  news  of  this  wonder- 
ful camp-meeting  spread  through  that  country,  that  every 
one  going  got  knocked  down,  many  of  the  pioneers, 
wicked  and  unbelieving,  went  through  curiosity,  actually 
defying  the  power  of  that  meeting  to  knock  them  down 
But  it  became  a  paradoxical  fact  that  all  going  thither 
had  to  fall  under  the  power.  Though  the  meeting  was 
pitched  for  a  few  days,  according  to  custom,  it  went  on 
two  or  three  months,  actually  continuing  till  the  on- 
coming winter  broke  it  up. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  309 

Eventually,  as  so  many  people  had  told  this  young 
man,  James  Finley,  that  he  would  get  knocked  down  if 
he  went  to  that  meeting,  he  therefore  made  his  boast 
that  there  was  one  young  man  they  could  not  knock 
down.  So,  mounting  his  fine  horse,  he  rode  away  to  the 
camp,  a  hundred  or  more  miles.  On  arrival,  hitching  his 
horse,  he  went  to  the  scene.  When  looking  around  he 
saw  twenty  preachers  here  and  there  on  stumps,  logs, 
rocks,  wagons,  and  mounds  of  earth,  preaching  with  all 
their  might,  manifesting  physical  demonstrations  such 
as  he  had  never  seen  before,  and  meanwhile  the  people 
falling  all  around  them  and  crying  for  mercy,  rising  with 
shouts,  and  jerking  as  if  convulsed  by  epileptic  fits; 
while  gazing  around  upon  the  scene,  such  as  he  had 
never  before  beheld,  a  strange  weakness  began  to  creep 
over  him,  worse  and  worse,  till  he  found  himself  in  the 
very  act  of  falling,  when  catching  himself  he  ran  away 
from  the  scene  to  where  he  had  hitched  his  horse. 
There  he  endeaverod  to  recover  his  equilibrium  as  best 
he  could  and  bolted  himself  up  on  his  boasted  champion- 
ship, reviving  his  energies  and  recuperating  his  prowess, 
fostering  afresh  his  boasted  claims  to  the  championship 
of  the  world.  So,  having  taken  a  rest,  he  went  back, 
determined  to  stem  the  tide,  as  he  had  boasted  to  all 
his  neighbors  that  they  could  not  knock  him  down. 
Again  having  reached  the  situation  and  looking  around, 
he  saw  that  the  tide  had  gone  up  and  the  power  was 
sweeping  everything  before  it.  Despite  all  he  could  do, 
bolstering  up  his  prowess,  he  found  that  same  strange 
weakness  coming  on  him  and  rapidly  increasing  and 
permeating  his  whole  body.  His  knees  knocked  together 
like  Belshazzar's  and  he  found  himself  actually  falling, 


3io 


Autobiography    op 


and   so   hurried   away,   with   great   difficulty   making  his 
escape. 

This  time  he  made  a  special  effort  to  enlist  Satan  more 
efficiently  in  his  behalf;  riding-  away  about  a  mile  to  a 
tavern  where  he  bought  some  brandy  and  drank  it, 
thinking  it  would  settle  his  nerves;  then  returning  to  the 
scene  of  conflict  the  third  time  and  looking  around  he 
saw  that  the  tide  was  much  higher,  having  decisively 
gone  up  since  he  left.  His  attention  was  especially 
directed  to  a  crowd  of  about  five  hundred  who  had  just 
arrived  on  the  scene,  therefore  he  soliloquized,  "I  will 
look  at  them  and  see  how  they  get  along;  probably  I 
will  learn  from  them  how  to  stand  it  belter."  While 
making  them  the  especial  object  of  his  attention,  he  saw 
the  whole  crowd  fall  simultaneously  on  the  ground,  as 
suddenly  as  if  a  battery  of  a  thousand  cannons  had  been 
turned  on  them.  As  he  saw  them  rolling,  floundering, 
and  jerking,  and  heard  their  loud  wails  and  shrieks  and 
ejaculatory  prayers,  he  almost  fell  to  the  ground.  Tak- 
ing fright,  he  made  his  escape  with  great  difficulty  and, 
though  the  most  active  young  man  in  the  world,  com- 
petent to  actually  leap  over  his  horse  like  a  kangaroo, 
he  found  himself  just  too  weak  to  mount  him  and  with 
great  difficulty  got  on  him  from  a  stump,  and  had  to 
hold  to  the  saddle-horn  to  keep  from  falling  off. 

Riding  away  he  was  surprised  and  disappointed  when 
that  strange  weakness  still  stayed  with  him.  Having 
with  great  difficulty  ridden  for  ten  miles,  he  fell  off  his 
horse,  finding  himself  utterly  unable  to  walk;  thus  he 
realized  that  the  very  thing  they  had  all  told  him  about, 
in  reference  to  the  knock  down  power  which  would 
come  on  him,  had  already  been  verified. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  311 

Meanwhile  the  awful  conviction  of  his  lost  estate  set- 
tled down  on  him  like  a  nightmare,  and  he  saw  Hell 
open  and  the  devil  after  him.  I  have  often  seen  the 
spot  where  his  physical  powers  so  utterly  failed  that  he 
could  hold  on  his  horse  no  longer,  and  tumbled  down  in 
the  middle  of  the  road.  The  people  gathered  around  him, 
gazing  on  him  from  a  distance,  afraid  to  go  near  lest  he 
might  have  some  awful  contagious  disease  which  they 
would  contract.  But  it  so  happened  that  an  old  Dutch- 
man was  living  in  the  village,  who  had  been  to  the  meet- 
ings and  got  knocked  down  and  wonderfully  saved,  so 
when  he  came  he  told  the  people  not  to  be  afraid,  that 
the  man  had  no  contagious  disease,  but  he  had  been  to 
that  camp-meeting  and  it  was  the  power  of  God  on  him 
to  save  his  soul.  They  were  to  rest  easy,  for  in  due 
time  he  would  be  all  right. 

Then  the  Dutchman  asked  them  to  help  him  carry  the 
young  fellow  into  his  house  (for  he  was  large  and 
heavy).  Though  the  old  fellow's  speech  was  so  indistinct 
that  it  was  hard  to  understand  him,  he  spent  the  whole 
night  with  him  in  prayer  and  exhortation.  With  the 
dawn  of  the  ensuing  morning,  the  glorious  heavenly  day- 
break peered  into  his  soul.  Therefore  with  tremendous 
shouts  of  victory,  mounting  his  horse  he  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing,  confirming  the  testimony  of  his  predecessors 
that  nobody  could  go  to  that  camp-meeting  and  not  get 
knocked  down  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  He 
became  one  of  the  greatest  Methodist  preachers  that  ever 
blew  the  Gospel  trumpet.  You  would  all  do  well  to  pur- 
chase the  "Life  of  Rev.  Jas.  B.  Finley,"  and  read  it 
appreciatively.  I  assure  you  it  will  prove  an  exceedingly 
profitable  inspiration. 


3T2  Autobiography   oi? 

God  is  not  going  to  let  Satan's  people  capture  this 
world  and  run  away  with  it,  without  so  revealing  IPs 
supernatural  power  to  the  elect  that  the  lost  millions  will 
be  left  without  excuse.  The  reason  why  He  so  miracu- 
lously interfered  at  Caneridge,  Ky.,  was  because  the 
people  were  pouring  into  this  great,  rich,  and  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  by  millions,  and  with- 
out the  means  of  grace  requisite  to  resist  the  awful  tide 
of  infidelity  which  was  threatening  to  inundate  and  really 
capture  this  country,  through  the  current  circulation  of 
that  dangerous  book,  Payne's  "Age  of  Reason,"  which 
was  everywhere  scattered  through  the  settlements  of  this 
new  country.  The  French  infidels  had  captured  that 
empire  but  a  short  time  previously,  when,  during  the 
French  Revolution,  they  got  the  political  power  into  their 
hands,  banished  the  Bible,  closed  all  the  churches  and 
turned  them  into  lecture  halls,  abolished  the  Sabbath, 
appointing  every  tenth  day  for  recreation  and  rest,  and 
sending  agents  throughout  the  whole  country  to  super- 
scribe on  every  graveyard,  "Death  is  an  eternal  sleep." 
Payne,  Voltaire  and  Reausseau  had  filled  the  whole 
country  with  their  infidel  writings,  which  had  been  car- 
ried into  this  new  country  and  circulated  extensively, 
before  the  people  had  time  to  organize  churches.  God 
wanted  this  delightful  land  to  become  the  grand  citadel 
of  His  kingdom,  as  we  now  rejoice  to  recognize  that  it 
is,  that  it  might  send  millions  of  missionaries  to  light 
the  dark  regions  of  the  antipodial  world.  Therefore  He 
came  among  them  with  His  miraculous  power,  which  pur 
to  shame  the  votaries  of  Satan's  Hell-hatched   lies. 

During  my  late  tour  around  the  world,  as  I  paused  and 
gazed  on  the  statue  of  Voltaire  on  the  public  square  in 


Ri;v.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  313 

Paris,  I  thought  about  his  prophecies,  that  one  hundred 
years  would  take  the  Bible  out  of  the  world  forever.  It 
is  a  significant  fact  that  in  less  than  a  hundred  years, 
his  own  office,  in  which  he  wrote  that  awful  prophecy, 
became  a  Bible  Depository,  and  is  still  used  in  that  way. 
Well  did  Dr.  Talmage  say  that  the  age  of  miracles  is 
not  passed,  but  we  are  sad  to  admit  that  with  many  the 
age  of  faith  is  past. 

For  reasons  I  know  not,  this  extraordinary  power  was 
principally  manifested  in  the  South.  I  surmised  that  it 
was  a  manifestation  of  God's  presence  rebuking  the  sin 
of  slavery  and  emancipating  those  people  who  had  toiled 
in  hard  bondage  for  two  hundred  years.  I  am  so  glad 
you  may  see  this  extraordinary  manifestation  of  His 
power  among  the  heathens  and  especially  in  India  to-day. 

In  1884,  the  Lord  gave  us  a  wonderful  revival  at 
Piedmont,  Mo.,  doing  mighty  works.  In  that  meeting 
I  observed  an  extraordinary  phenomenon  among  the  rail- 
road men.  That  is  a  great  railroad  center  where  they 
have  extensive  shops  and  all  change  engines.  A  leading 
railroad  man  received  conversion,  reminding  me  of  Saul 
of  Tarsus  in  the  brilliancy  which  characterized  it.  He 
at  once  turned  evangelist  among  his  comrades,  like  a 
cyclone  of  fire.  Many  of  them  were  unable  to  reach  the 
meetings  till  nine  o'clock  P.  M.,  so  we  at  once  accom- 
modated ourselves  to  their  conveniences  with  great  de- 
light, not  only  holding  the  meetings  at  other  hours  ac- 
commodatory  to  the  citizens,  but  continuing  on  till  mid- 
night, and  after,  in  the  especial  interest  of  the  railroad 
people,  male  and  female,  who  came  pouring  in  about 
nine ;  and  it  seemed,  so  far  as  I  could  tell,  that  the  revival 
reached  everybody. 


314  Autobiography    op 

Our  newly  saved  and  sanctified  railroad  evangelist  or- 
ganized a  meeting  in  a  running  car,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  train  men  who  had  no  chance  to  attend  church. 
Those  fire-baptized  railroad  men  thus  prayed  and 
preached  their  lost  comrades  through  into  the  kingdom, 
while  the  train  was  speeding  over  the  track  at  forty  miles 
an  hour.  While  the  work  was  glorious  in  the  local 
churches  and  among  the  citizens,  this  railroad  phase  of 
the  revival  far  excelled  all  I  ever  knew.  I  mention  it 
by  way  of  special  encouragement  in  the  interest  of  our 
railroad  people. 

N.  B.  Our  noble  brother,  E.  A.  Fergerson,  my  Gospel 
son,  continued  to  run  his  engine  a  number  of  years  after 
God  had  made  him  a  flaming  evangelist. 

While  preaching  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  amid  a  glorious  re- 
vival in  Wesley  Chapel,  a  noted  railroad  conductor  was 
working  most  efficiently  in  the  after  meetings,  leading 
souls  to  the  Savior.  Several  years  subsequently,  when  I 
was  preaching  in  Columbia,  S.  C,  I  found  him  in  the 
pastorate  of  the  Gospel  Tabernacle,  built  by  our  sainted 
Brother  Oliver,  and  the  signal  blessings  of  God  upon 
his  work.  He  told  me  that  when  I  was  with  him  in  that 
Georgia  meeting,  I  looked  him  in  the  face  and  said. 
"Brother,  do  you  not  know  that  God  wants  you  to  con- 
duct a  Gospel  train?"  He  said  God  spoke  to  him  at 
that  time,  answering  my  question  in  the  affirmative. 
Consequently  he  resigned  his  conductorship  and  turned 
preacher. 

Let  these  cursory  references  remind  every  reader  to 
make  our  millions  of  railroad  people  in  all  the  earth  a 
special  subject  of  prayer  ;  that  they  who  carry  us  on  our 
pergrinations    to    preach    the    everlasting    Gospel    may 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  315 

themselves  receive  the  message,  board  the  Gospel  train 
constantly  running  from  the  City  of  Destruction  up  the 
royal  railway  to  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  live  with  us  in 
the  land  of  the  blessed  when  this  stormy  life  is  forever 
hushed,  amid  the  immutable  realities  of  eternity.  I  make 
it  a  rule  every  time  I  buy  a  ticket  to  get  in  a  word  of 
straight  Gospel  truth  to  the  agent,  and  on  every  occasion 
when  delivering  it  to  the  conductor,  despite  all  the  ex- 
pedition, to  dispense  to  him  the  'message  of  life.  The 
dear  saints  are  mistaken  in  the  prevalent  impression  that 
these  hurried  and  worried  railroad  men  would  not  ap- 
preciate our  words  of  Gospel  grace,  crowded  in  amid 
the  pressing  expedition  of  their  official  business.  I  have 
long  followed  the  habit  of  speaking  to  all  the  people 
with  whom  I  come  in  contact  in  the  interest  of  their 
souls.  I  can  testify  that  in  forty-nine  cases  out  of  fifty, 
these  railroad  officers  receive  my  words  of  Gospel  grace 
and  love  appreciatively  and,  generally,  respectfully  thank 
me  for  my  interest  in  their  souls  and  assure  me  of  their 
gratitude  for  my  prayers  in  their  behalf.  Always  keep 
your  heart  in  touch  with  God  when  you  approach  people 
in  the  interest  of  their  souls,  and  you  will  be  surprised 
at  the  grateful  appreciation  they  will  manifest  to  you. 

While  a  circuit  rider,  overtaking  a  man  walking  along 
the  turnpike  with  some  lightning  conductors  on  his 
shoulder,  I  constrained  him  to  hand  them  to  me  and  let 
my  horse  carry  his  burden.  The  end  I  had  in  view  was 
an  opportunity  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  him.  Of  course 
he  would  stay  with  me  while  I  carried  his  goods.  There- 
fore as  he  walked  by  my  side,  I  preached  to  him  the 
living  Word  with  all  my  heart,  exhorting  him  to  flee  the 
wrath  to  come.     Several  months  subsequently,  he   met 


316  Autobiography    of 

me  in  another  part  of  the  country,  full  of  joy  and  grati- 
tude ;  and  reminded  me  of  my  former  kindness  in  carry- 
ing his  burden  and  preaching  to  him  the  Gospel  mean- 
while, (as  I  had  forgotten  him),  testifying  that  my  little 
message  brought  him  down  on  his  knees  before  God, 
where  he  prayed  night  and  day,  till  the  glorious,  heavenly 
Dayspring  flooded  his  soul.  He  had  joined  the  Presby- 
terian Church  and  was  happy  in  God,  working  for  Him 
and  pressing  on  toward  the  bright  upper  world. 

Reader,  do  reckon  yourself  henceforth  simply  God's 
mouthpiece,  always  administering  the  message  of  life 
to  souls  you  meet  in  your  pilgrimage.  Oh,  that  you 
may,  by  the  blessed  enduement  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be 
able  to  say  like  the  Hebrew  prophet,  "God  hath  made 
my  mouth  a  sharp  sword."  The  Word  of  the  Lord  is  the 
sharpest  sword  that  has  ever  flashed  beneath  the  skies, 
Heb.  4:  12.  When  all  the  swords  that  have  ever  glit- 
tered on  earthly  battlefields  have  failed,  the  Gospel  sword 
with  the  bright  New  Jerusalem  blade,  sharper  than  the 
lightning,  has  no  trouble  to  cut  its  way  through.  Then, 
oh,  Christian  soldier,  be  sure  that  you  never  go  out  with- 
out it,  lest  the  enemy  slay  you. 

At  Farmington,  Mo.,  immediately  after  the  glorious 
revival  at  Piedmont,  the  Lord  gave  us  a  most  extraor- 
dinary victory,  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  bright  con- 
versions, eighty-one  sanctifications,  and  all  of  the  ortho- 
dox churches  in  the  city  gloriously  revived,  with  hun- 
dreds happily  reclaimed  from  a  backslidden  state.  The 
meeting  was  in  midwinter,  and  the  snow  was  knee  deep, 
and  though  it  lasted  more  than  three  weeks,  there  was 
no  moderation  of  the  weather.  We  opened  with  very 
few  as  the  people  dreaded  the  cold,  but  after  the  power 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  317 

descended  from  Heaven,  it  seemed  that  they  utterly  lost 
sight  of  the  wintry  storms,  which  swept  in  blizzards. 
They  said  that  the  whole  country  throughout  a  radius 
of  twenty  miles  was  drawn  into  the  revival.  I  made  it 
a  rule  to  stand  out  in  the  middle  of  the  house,  so  that 
my  voice  would  be  clearly  audible  and  the  more  forcible 
to  all  of  the  crowd.  I  am  satisfied  that  twice  as  many 
people  as  the  seats  could  accommodate  squeezed  into  the 
house ;  even  standing  room  was  at  a  high  premium.  In 
the  awful  jam  and  cram,  all  courtesies  were  forgotten, 
and  each  one  felt  exceedingly  fortunate  if  he  could  only 
get  inside,  as  without  no  one  could  endure  the  cold. 
Ladies  stood  four  solid  hours  without  moving.  Mean- 
while the  power  of  the  Almighty  so  inundated  the  mul- 
titude that  situation,  environments  and  all  temporalities 
sank  into  oblivion. 

I  was  under  the  necessity  of  securing  the  service  of 
two  stalwart  brethren,  one  on  either  side,  to  actually  take 
charge  of  my  person,  in  order  to  get  standing  room. 
Could  you  not  have  gotten  it  in  the  pulpit?  No,  I  had 
to  vacate  that  for  the  babies,  as  there  was  no  other  place 
where  they  would  have  been  at  all  secure,  and  the  interest 
was  so  intense  that  nobody  was  willing  to  stay  at  home 
with  them.  My  ushers  had  all  they  could  do  to  keep 
the  crowd  from  pressing  me  out  of  all  the  standing  room 
in  the  house.  With  great  difficulty  we  managed  to  get 
the  seekers  together  so  we  might  pray  with  them ;  the 
major  part  of  the  altar  work,  however,  took  place  after 
the  crowd  had  been  somewhat  relieved  by  the  retiring 
of  some  of  the  people  after  the  benediction,  which  was 
given  soon  after  the  sermon,  in  view  of  possibly  relieving 
the  immense  pressure  of  the  multitude. 


3l8  AuTOniOGRAPHY     OF 

Not  only  the  Methodist  Church,  with  which  we  held 
the  meeting,  receive  1  an  accession  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred members,  but  the  Baptist  received  about  fifty 
When  a  great  Baptist  D.  D.  in  St.  Louis  heard  of  the 
big  sanctification  in  Farmington,  fearing  the  "heresy" 
might  affect  his  church  in  that  place,  he  came  to  preach 
a  series  of  sermons  in  which  he  proposed  to  refute  the 
"fanatics."  When  he  arrived  and  started  off  on  that  line, 
the  brethren  unhesitatingly  put  the  brake  on  him,  noti- 
fying him  that  the  "sanctification"  meeting  had  done 
them  more  good  than  their  own  preacher  had  done  in 
twenty  years.  Therefore,  while  they  gladly  welcomed 
his  ministry  if  he  would  content  himself  to  preach  the 
Gospel,  if  his  purpose  was  to  refute  the  doctrine  which 
they  had  heard  in  the  revival,  they  said  they  would  re- 
spectfully excuse  him,  because  they  had  received  an  acces- 
sion of  fifty  members  out  of  that  revival  and  could  not 
afford,  under  any  circumstances,  to  permit  anything  that 
would  discourage  them.  Therefore  the  great  D.  D.  re- 
turned to  St.  Louis,  where  he  wielded  a  more  potent  in- 
fluence than  he  was  about  to  get  at  Farmington.  When 
I  heard  it  I  praised  the  Lord  for  giving  those  Baptists 
good,  solid  sense,  as  well  as  religion.  When  the  same 
man  wrote  me  up  in  his  paper  of  which  he  was  editor, 
epitheting  me  a  "modern  sanctifier,"  he  stated  that  he 
must  admit  that  along  with  my  "heresy"  I  managed  to 
crowd  in  more  of  the  real  Gospel  than  my  comrades. 

The  pastor  at  Frederickstown,  Mo.,  from  the  time  he 
heard  of  me  in  the  state,  had  been  so  persistently  calling 
me,  that  I  knew  he  must  be  in  a  serious  dilemma  some 
way.  At  that  time  sanctification  was  an  utter  novelty 
in  that  country,  and  very  alarming  to  the  churches,  as 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  319 

the  reports  of  wild  fire  and  fanaticism  had  gone  every- 
where. A  general  trepidation  was  prevailing,  lest  the 
infection  might  get  into  the  church.  When  I  got  to 
Frederickstown,  and  called  at  the  parsonage,  the  preach- 
er's wife  said  to  me  that  I  was  too  late ;  that  when  God 
sanctified  her  husband  a  short  time  previously  his  mem- 
bers pronounced  him  crazy,  and  held  a  meeting  in  view 
of  discarding  him  from  the  pastorate.  Though  in  this 
they  did  not  quite  have  the  necessary  majority  of  the 
official  board,  their  effort  so  discouraged  him  that  he 
had  concluded  to  resign  his  pastoral  charge  and  was  then 
gone  to  St.  Louis  to  negotiate  for  some  business  by  which 
he  could  make  a  living;  meanwhile  he  would  do  his 
preaching  to  the  neglected  poor  in  the  slums.  I  had  her 
telegraph  to  him  to  come  home  at  once.  On  his  arrival 
I  said  to  him,  "Now,  brother,  I  am  here  to  help  you  in 
a  protracted  meeting,  as  you  called  me,  and  though  you 
have  made  up  your  mind  to  resign  the  pastorate,  while 
you  have  it  in  hand  God  is  opening  the  door  for  you 
to  glorify  Him  in  the  salvation  of  the  people  to  whom 
your  Conference  sent  you  to  preach  the  living  Word." 
Thus  I  persuaded  him  to  let  me  proceed  with  a  pro- 
tracted meeting,  though  the  difficulties  had  so  dis- 
couraged him  that  he  had  given  it  up  altogether.  I  told 
him  that  the  only  available  remedy  for  the  trouble  in 
the  Church  was  the  grace  of  God ;  which  is  as  free  as 
the  air  we  breathe  and  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
not  have  it. 

So  we  proceeded  at  once.  The  Lord  came  in  wonder- 
ful, Pentecostal  power,  giving  us  about  one  hundred 
bright  conversions,  a  glorious  sanctificitjnn  work  and  a 
general  revival  in  the  city,  resulting  in  an  accession  of 


320  Autobiography    of 

about  four  score  to  the  membership.  Though  the  people 
had  made  an  effort  to  turn  out  their  pastor  for  insanity, 
because  he  got  sanctified,  when  they  got  the  same  kind 
of  dementation,  it  would  have  done  you  good  to  see  them 
hug  him.  It  actually  seemed  like  they  would  pull  the 
dear  man  to  pieces. 

Satan  says  sanctification  divides  churches.  We  found 
this  church  divided,  but  sanctification  united  it.  They 
not  only  kept  their  pastor,  but  when  his  time  was  up  they 
petitioned  for  his  return. 

Between  these  great  revivals  at  Farmington  and 
Frederickstown,  responsive  to  an  urgent  call,  I  went  to 
a  town  in  that  part  of  the  country  which  was  honored 
with  a  Methodist  college.  They  were  intensely  anxious 
for  a  great  and  glorious  revival,  such  as  God  had  given 
us  at  Farmington;  but,  like  many  others  who  ever  and 
anon  called  me,  they  just  would  not  let  me  preach  the 
Sinai  Gospel,  which  is  the  only  power  to  convict  people, 
without  which  a  revival  would  be  an  empty  farce.  There- 
fore I  had  to  go  away  and  leave  them  resting  in  their 
carnal  security.  The  students  and  the  people  would  have 
taken  the  truth,  but  the  president  of  the  college  flickered 
under  the  fire,  his  teachers  following  him  and  a  earn  I 
pastor  helping  them  to  magnify  Satan  in  the  defeat  o  ' 
the  revival  which  was  so  much  needed,  especially  to 
save  the  students.  I  must  confess  that  I  left  with  much 
reluctance,  for  this  was  one  of  the  most  inviting  field. > 
I  ever  knew;  but  I  just  could  not  reap  the  harve.-.: 
without  a  sharp  sickle,  which  they  absolutely  would  n  i 
tolerate.  I  went  from  there  to  Frederickstown,  uhe; 
God  did  that  glorious  work  wdiich  was  so  much  needed, 
especially  in  the  Methodist  Church,  where  the  footprints 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  321 

of  Bishop  Marvin,  of  precious  memory,  who  long  lived 
there,  were  still  delectably  visible. 

The  Lord  gave  us  a  glorious  revival  in  Jefferson  City, 
the  state  capital,  in  which  he  wrought  mighty  works, 
bringing  salvation  and  sanctification  to  many  hungry 
souls.  There  He  profoundly  impressed  me  with  the  les- 
son of  His  boundless  free  grace  as  never  before.  At 
that  time  witnesses  to  sanctification  were  few  and  rare. 
When  we  entered  upon  the  work  and  began  to  marshal 
the  forces  for  the  oncoming  battle  with  sin  and  Satan, 
I  found  about  three  or  four  people  in  the  city  clear  in 
the  experience  of  sanctification. 

Among  them  was  an  old  Mormon,  whose  testimony 
was  beautiful ;  he  was  inundated  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
and  flooded  with  the  sweet,  perfect  love  of  God,  in- 
dubitably manifested  by  the  words  dripping  with  honey 
and  all  of  his  inspiring  utterances  electrified  with  flowing 
tears,  really  surprising  me  as  I  felt  that  I  was  in  the 
presence  of  a  weeping  prophet.  I  never,  of  course,  held 
any  sectarian  meeting,  but  always  threw  them  wide  open 
for  the  Lord's  people  of  every  name,  order,  nationality, 
race,  and  color.  But  as  I  had  never  before  come  in  con- 
tact with  Mormons  in  my  meetings,  I  felt  a  little  stag- 
gered. The  pastor,  Brother  Cobb,  a  leading  man  in  the 
Methodist  connection,  perceiving  my  perplexity,  unhes- 
itatingly relieved  me  with  the  assurance  that  the  Chris- 
tian character  of  this  Mormon  brother  was  accepted 
throughout  the  city  without  impeachment,  and  that  all 
had  unshaken  confidence  in  his  piety,  and  said  for  me  to 
give  him  perfect  liberty  in  the  meetings  and  use  him  with 
the  utmost  freedom.  His  prayer  was  flooded  with  the 
unction  and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  well  as  his 


322  Autobiography   o? 

testimonies  and  exhortations.  Through  his  influence  the 
members  of  his  Church  attended  the  meetings,  got  saved 
and  sanctified  and  took  an  active  part  along  with  the 
Methodists  and  other  denominations.  I  may  observe  that 
there  are  two  branches  of  the  Mormon  Church  in  the  West 
^the  polygamous  and  the  anti-polygamous.  Those  people 
were  identified  with  the  latter,  having  but  one  wife.  I 
then  became  more  than  ever  convinced  that  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons  and  always  ready  to  bless  the  humble 
and  meek,  lowly  and  faithful,  with  the  unstinted  bounty 
of  His  superabounding  grace. 

We  had  a  glorious,  old-style,  Holy  Ghost  revival,  with 
people  praying  through  to  victory  and  shouting.  Glory 
to  God !  Methodists,  Mormons,  and  others  all  mixed 
up,  making  them  feel  like  singing: 

"My  brethren,  can  you  say 
That  you  are  on  your  way? 
I  care  not  for  your  name, 
Religion  is  the  same. 
Perhaps  you  think  me  wild, 
Or  simple  as  a  child ; 
I  am  a  child  of  glory 
Just  born  from  above, 
My  soul  is  full  of  love ; 
Come  hear  me  tell  my  story. 
My  soul  doth  long  to  go 
Where  I  shall  fully  know 
The  glories  of  my  Savior; 
Then  as  I  pass  along. 
I'll  sing  a  Christian  song; 
I  hope  to  live  forever." 

We  should  never  condemn  people  for  a  mere  cogno- 
men. God  saves  truly  humble,  penitent,  believing  souls, 
in  spite  of  the  devil  and  doctrinal  error. 

The  Mormons,  like  the  Campbcllites,  preach  baptism 
in  order  to  the  remission  of  sins,  which  is  a  very  danger 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  323 

ous  error.  Yet  we  find  some  clear,  bright  witnesses  to 
experimental  salvation  among  those  people,  whose  testi- 
mony is  not  to  be  discounted  for  their  doctrinal  errors. 
God  is  so  anxious  to  save  people  that  He  never  misses  a 
chance.  He  is  infinitely  more  merciful  than  we  are. 
Certain  sins  if  committed  blacken  the  name  of  the  poor 
victim  with  eternal  infamy,  and  people  never  do  forgive 
them.  Yet  it  is  not  so  with  God,  who  gladly  forgives  the 
vilest  sins,  when  He  sees  the  real  and  genuine  fruits  of 
repentance.  King  Manasseh  succeeded  his  sanctified 
father  Hezekiah,  the  great  leader  of  the  holiness  move- 
ment in  his  day,  and,  closing  his  eyes  to  the  light  of  his 
father's  example,  not  only  led  the  Jews  back  into  idol- 
atry, but  even  polluted  the  temple  with  idols  and  wor- 
shipped them  there.  Yet,  when  a  captive  in  Babylon, 
amid  awful  tortures,  he  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes, 
with  a  true  and  genuine  repentance;  God  heard  him, 
delivered  him  from  the  captivity  and  restored  him  to  his 
kingdom  in  Jerusalem,  where  he  spent  the  remnant  of 
his  life,  faithfully  proving  to  the  whole  world  the  genu- 
ineness of  his  repentance. 

There  is  but  one  problem  in  the  salvation  of  every 
soul,  and  that  is  the  really  genuine  work  of  repentance, 
wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  changing  the 
subject  that  if  he  had  a  thousand  opportunities  to  com- 
mit the  same  sins  again,  he  would  have  his  head  cut  off 
rather  than  yield.  That  is  all  God  wants,  i.  e.,  the  real, 
radical  change  of  heart,  which  means  a  change  of  life 
forever.  Without  this  real  and  genuine  change  of  heart, 
the  soul  going  to  Heaven  would  commit  sin  there  and 
have  to  be  cast  out  like  Lucifer  and  his  followers. 
(Revelation  twelfth  chapter.) 


324  Autobiography   o? 

In  1884,  when  Bishop  McTieyre  took  the  bridle  off 
and  turned  me  loose  to  go  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  and 
preach  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  I  immediately 
darted  away  to  Texas,  the  great  Lone  Star  state,  and 
began  in  Texarkana  on  the  Arkansas  line,  as  the  name 
implies.  When  I  began  in  the  Methodist  Church,  I  found 
but  few  people,  as  religion  over  the  city  was  at  a  very 
low  ebb,  and  the  churches  deserted. 

Looking  round  over  the  city,  going  from  house  to 
house  and  praying  with  people,  I  of  course  looked  at  the 
different  church  edifices,  as  they  were  pointed  out  and 
designated  by  name.  Near  the  Episcopal  Church,  on 
the  same  lawn,  I  recognized  a  very  large  building,  and 
upon  inqniry  was  informed  that  it  was  the  dancing  and 
skating  hall,  where  the  people  thronged  and  participated 
in  those  recreations ;  that  it  was  the  property  of  that 
Church,  and  the  frolickers  paid  their  money  for  those 
amusements,  which  money  was  used  for  the  support  of 
the  Church.  The  Presbyterians  had  also  been  renting 
it,  and  conducting  similar  amusements  in  the  financial 
interest  of  their  Church. 

I  found  for  the  above  reason  that  the  Episcopal  Church 
was  the  leader  of  the  city,  to  which  the  young  people 
en  masse  rallied  and  there  held  their  membership.  I 
found  that  Satanic  institution  had  actually  built  their 
Church,  till  numerically  it  stood  at  the  front,  the  leader 
in  popularity  and  influence.  God  laid  it  on  my  heart 
to  attack  Satan  in  his  citadel  without  mercy.  Therefore 
T  waited  till  Sunday  night,  as  I  was  satisfied  thaf 
novelty  and  curiosity  would  at  that  time  give  me  a  large 
congregation ;  having  antecedently  preached  to  nake-1 
walls   and   empty    seats.      Sure   enough   the   house  was 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  325 

packed  on  Sunday  night  to  hear  the  new  preacher.  God 
blessedly  saved  me  from  all  modesty,  so  that  I  positively 
specified  the  very  thing  I  was  striking  at  and  preached 
my  sermon  on  Satan's  church,  by  which  I  designated 
that  dancing  and  skating  rink,  which  was  owned  by  the 
Episcopal  Church,  and  used  to  popularize  and  support 
it  financially.  I  literally  dissected  the  matter  before  the 
crowded  assembly,  and  unhesitatingly  consigned  all  the 
people  identified  with  it  to  the  devil,  to  whom  they  be- 
longed, preachers,  officers  and  members,  and  showed 
them  plainly  by  the  Word  of  God  that  they  were  "all  on 
their  way  to  Hell  as  fast  as  they  could  go;  thus  showing 
up  the  appalling  state  of  wickedness  in  their  city ;  recog- 
nizing Satan's  church  in  the  lead.  No  wonder  the  out- 
side world  was  so  desperately  wdcked,  which  was  a 
notorious  fact  to  all  the  people.  I  availed  myself  of  the 
opportunity  to  give  them  a  horrific  sermon  on  Hell,  show- 
ing up  those  churches  in  the  awful  responsibility  of 
actually  leading  the  people  to  the  extent  of  their  ability 
right  down  to  Hell ;  thus  cunningly  and  audaciously  at- 
tracting them  to  the  devil's  church,  in  which  they  were 
encouraged  to  dance  and  skate  their  way  down  to  Hell. 
I  showed  it  up  as  Satan's  literal  Hell-trap,  in  which  he 
was  so  adroitly  using  the  preachers  and  leading  mem- 
bers to  capture  the  young  people  and  put  them  on  that 
greased  plank  and  shoot  them  on  the  downward  road. 
The  Lord  wonderfully  helped  me  to  warn  them  of  their 
awful  danger  and,  responsive  to  my  invitation,  gave  us 
an  altar  crowded  with  seekers;  thus  opening  a  glorious 
revival. 

My  rough  and  terrible  assault  proved  an  awful  awak- 
ening to  the  people,  the  Holy  Ghost  wonderfully  using 


326  Autobiography   op 

it  in  conviction.  The  Presbyterians  at  once  sent  me 
word  please  to  spare  them,  as  they  were  all  repenting 
in  sack  cloth  over  the  wretched  mistake  they  had  made, 
and  to  rest  assured  that  they  would  never  be  guilty  of 
it  again.  Meanwhile,  the  Episcopalians  who  owned  the' 
institution,  received  such  an  awakening  that  they  sold  it 
out  to  Satan's  people  and  undertook  to  wash  the  blood 
of  souls  from  their  hands. 

My  treatment  of  that  crying  iniquity  was  so  summary 
and  decisive  that  it  produced  an  awful  excitement  in  the 
city.  Two  daily  papers  immediately  took  it  up,  the  one 
against  me  and  the  other  on  my  side,  and  went  into  the 
war  hot  and  heavy.  On  Tuesday  morning  following,  an 
anomalous  circular  was  found  distributed  throughout  the 
city,  ordering  me  to  leave  at  once  or  meet  Judge  Lynch 
face  to  face.  The  next  morning  another  circular  was 
found  throughout  the  city,  exhorting  me  to  take  courage 
and  hold  on,  assuring  me  that  I  had  plenty  of  friends 
in  that  place,  and  need  not  be  afraid.  Of  course  these 
sensational  papers  gave  me  the  best  possible  advertise- 
ment, so  that  I  had  to  stand  in  the  door,  with  the  house 
full  of  women  and  a  multitude  of  men  without,  and 
preach  them  the  glorious  Gospel.  Meanwhile  the  revival 
swept  on,  penitents  crowding  the  altar,  seeking  and  find- 
ing the  Lord.  Brother  Lively,  who  has  since  been  pre- 
siding elder  many  years,  came  seventy  miles  to  attend 
the  meeting,  and  you  do  not  wonder  that  he  got  sancti- 
fied. 

That  was  the  beginning  of  my  work  in  Texas.  The 
Lord  gave  us  a  glorious  victory.  He  let  me  preach  this 
wonderful  salvation  Gospel  from  Arkansas  to  Louisiana, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  327 

to  the  Mexican  border,  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Pan 
Handle. 

While  I  was  moving  along  holding  meetings,  pursuant 
to  the  invitation  of  the  pastor  I  held  two  revivals  at 
Arlington,  a  beautiful  town  midway  between  Dallas  and 
Fort  Worth.  The  good  people  were  anxious  to  settle 
me  there,  proposing  to  donate  me  a  splendid  home,  which 
I  gratefully,  lovingly,  and  respectfully  declined  to  accept. 
The  same  was  done  at  Russellville,  Ind.,  and  likewise 
declined.  I  never,  never  wanted  gifts,  but  always  pre- 
ferred to  pay  for  everything  I  received.  My  collegiate 
education  cost  me  a  thousand  dollars,  whereas  I  might 
have  received  it  gratuitously.  I  feel  that  it  is  a  great 
mistake  for  any  of  us  ever  to  accept  a  price  which  our 
friends  set  upon  our  heads,  lest  in  so  doing  we  might 
make  the  awful  mistake  of  Judas  when  he  sold  Jesus. 
When  we  have  taken  Him  for  our  everlasting  portion, 
we  have  passed  the  temptation  of  bribes. 

At  Alvarado,  the  Lord  gave  us  a  four  weeks'  revival, 
which  continued  to  run  on  after  we  left,  resulting  in  two 
hundred  and  fifty  conversions  and  sanctifications.  The 
whole  country  was  stirred  for  twenty  miles  in  all  direc- 
tions. As  a  rule  the  meetings  would  hold  till  eleven  or 
twelve  o'clock  at  night,  the  people  lingering  spellbound 
to  the  end,  knowing  that  it  would  take  them  the  balance 
of  the  night  to  drive  home.  Bud  Robinson  came  twenty 
miles  in  a  jolt  wagon  to  attend  the  meeting.  There  he 
heard  his  first  sermon  on  sanctification  and  got  con- 
victed for  it,  being  at  that  time  a  preacher.  He  says  he 
never  survived  that  conviction  till  he  entered  into  the 
experience. 

From  Alvarado,  we  went  to  Maxahatchie,  where  the 


328  Autobiography    op 

Lord  gave  us  another  glorious  victory,  about  one  hun- 
dred souls  thronging  the  altar  and  praying  through  to 
a  clear,  bright  testimony  to  the  power  of  Jesus  to  save 
even  to  the  uttermost. 

We  found  in  that  country  deep  and  inveterate  hostility 
to  sanctifkation,  resulting  mainly  from  a  fatal  fanaticism 
which  had  visited  the  land  in  preceding  years,  preaching 
a  counterfeit  sanctifkation,  which  required  husband  and 
wife  to  separate.  Satan  is  the  great  counterfeit  and 
never  fails  to  counterfeit  everything  that  God  does.  In 
that  case  the  people  come  in  contact  with  his  counterfeit 
and  find  it  a  rattle-snake  sub  rosa,  get  bitten  and  ever 
afterward  ignorantly  fight  the  genuine.  This  high- 
handed scheme  of  counterfeiting  the  blessed  work  of 
God  has  always  been  Satan's  great  gun.  The  rationale, 
when  sounded  to  the  bottom,  would  really  beat  Diabolus 
at  his  own  game;  because  the  counterfeit  of  anything  is 
a  proof  of  the  genuine,  as  it  is  impossible  to  counterfeit 
a  nonentity. 

The  Lord  was  continually  giving  us  a  great  revival. 
All  of  the  churches  in  the  beautiful  little  city  of  Hills- 
boro,  county-seat  of  Hill  County,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great,  black,  rich  prairie  land  five  hundred  miles  long 
and  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  wide,  of  which  the 
Methodist  was  the  strongest  numerically  and  influen- 
tially,  had  entered  into  a  union  against  sanctifkation . 
determined  to  keep  it  out.  But  the  bright  young  pastor 
of  the  Methodist  Church  was  so  filled  with  curiosity  that 
he  came  away  twenty-five  miles  to  our  meeting  to  see 
for  himself.  Lightning  was  in  the  air,  therefore  on 
arrival  he  soliloquized,  "Surely  God  is  in  this  place." 
Conviction  settled  on  him  so  that  he  became  a  seeker  of 


Rev.  VV.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  329 

sanctification   and,   in   due   time,    triumphantly    entered 
Beulah  Land. 

When  he  received  the  experience,  he  said  to  me, 
"Brother  Godbey,  I  cannot  go  back  to  my  work  alone  ; 
the  opposition  there  is  so  awful,  you  must  go  with  me." 
Such  was  his  importunity  that  I  postponed  my  engage- 
ments and  went  along;  himself  having  preceded  our  ar- 
rival by  a  few  days,  giving  publicity  to  the  impending 
protracted  meeting.  Therefore  on  arrival  we  found  a 
congregation  assembled  in  the  Methodist  Church  await- 
ing us.  The  ruling  spirits  of  the  church  were  so  en- 
raged when  they  heard  that  a  holiness  meeting  had 
already  opened  that  they  proceeded  at  once  to  assemble 
the  official  board  in  order  to  turn  us  out  and  lock  the 
doors  against  us.  Therefore  the  first  day,  after  I  had 
gone  from  the  morning  meeting,  when  I  crossed  the 
square  to  dine,  the  young  pastor  came  to  me  weeping, 
and  notifying  me  that  the  official  board  had  met  and  were 
then  preparing  to  close  us  out  of  the  house.  I  said  to 
him,  "Brother  Fields,  I  am  an  old  presiding  elder  and 
know  the  law  on  this  subject.  You  go  and  tell  them 
-that  Brother  Godbey  has  no  meeting  here,  but  it  is  yours, 
and  he  is  merely  an  humble  helper.  The  law  gives  the 
pastor  the  control  of  the  house  during  his  time  as  ap- 
pointed by  the  Conference.  Therefore,  say  to  them,  If 
you  close  this  house,  you  shut  out  your  own  pastor,  and 
I  will  bring  charges  against  you  at  the  next  Annual 
Conference."  Then  they  at  once  conceived  the  idea  of 
telegraphing  the  presiding  elder,  who  was  a  notorious 
holiness  fighter. 

In  the  providence  of  God.  I  had  just  received  the  first 
shipment  of  my  "Christian   Perfection,"  sent  from  the 


330  Autobiography    OF 

publishing  house  to  me  at  Hillsboro.  On  arrival,  I  had 
opened  the  box  and  mailed  a  number  of  them  to  my 
friends,  and  among  them  had  sent  one  to  Brother  Stock- 
ton, presiding  elder  of  the  district  in  which  I  was  preach- 
ing. On  reception  of  the  book  he  began  to  read  it,  and 
found  it  so  full  of  dynamite  that  he  had  to  quit  reading 
and  go  to  praying  for  sanctification.  So  he  and  his  wife 
were  on  their  knees  in  their  home  praying  for  sancti- 
fication when  the  telegram  reached  them.  Responsive  to 
the  call,  he  at  once  arose,  boarded  the  train  and  finished 
reading  the  book  as  he  ran  along. 

When  he  arrived  at  eleven  o'clock,  our  morning  meet- 
ing had  just  reached  the  altar  service.  I  had  made  the 
call  and  the  people  were  rushing  to  the  altar  from  all 
directions.  When  I  saw  the  familiar  face  of  the  pre- 
siding elder  enter  the  door,  I  read  his  countenance  like 
a  book,  and  saw  that  God  had  complete  possession  of 
him.  He  came  trotting  down  the  aisle  and  fell  at  the 
altar.  We  all  went  to  God  in  prayer;  about  half  an 
hour  had  elapsed  when  He  turned  on  us  a  heavenly  land- 
slide. Meanwhile  quite  a  number  tided  over  Jordan 
into  Beulah  Land,  with  loud  shouts  of  victory,  and  among 
them  the  presiding  elder.  Rest  assured  we  had  a  halle- 
lujah time. 

Three  o'clock  was  the  hour  appointed  by  the  board 
to  hold  their  session,  in  view  of  closing  the  meeting. 
When  the  time  was  at  hand,  the  presiding  elder  and 
pastor,  arm  in  arm,  both  fresh  and  bright  in  the  Beulah 
Land  experience,  crossed  the  square  with  shouts  of 
praise  ringing  from  their  lips.  When  they  entered  the 
office  room,  the  presiding  elder  saluted  them  in  Christian 
affection  and  notified  them,  "Brethren,  you  have  sent  for 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  331 

the  wrong  man  if  you  want  that  holiness  meeting  closed. 
By  the  grace  of  God  I  am  one  of  them  and  for  running 
that  meeting  right  along,  till  Gabriel  blows  his  trumpet." 
So  they  found  themselves  utterly  defeated,  as  both  the 
pastor  and  the  presiding  elder  had  entered  the  experience 
which  they  had  combined  to  fight  out  of  the  church. 
Then  the  revival  moved  on  without  obstruction,  as  there 
was  no  chance  to  stop  it. 

But  the  Presbyterian  pastor,  Brother  Jacobs,  started 
a  competitive  meeting  in  his  church,  which  the  disaffected 
Methodists  and  other  anti-holiness  people  attended. 
Among  his  great  sermons  against  sanctification,  he 
preached  one  about  Job,  which  he  and  the  people  who 
heard  him  regarded  as  absolutely  unanswerable.  In  view 
of  its  sterling  value,  they  had  it  published  in  one  of  the 
city  papers,  which  was  handed  to  me.  My  people  be- 
came interested  about  it  and  asked  me  publicly  to  answer 
it,  to  which  I  readily  consented,  at  the  same  time  re- 
spectfully inviting  its  author  to  be  present  and  see  that 
I  did  not  misrepresent  him.  As  it  was  pre-announced, 
they  gave  me  a  tremendous  crowd  that  night,  eager  to 
hear  me  answer  the  powerful  argument  which  they  had 
read  in  the  paper.  Brother  Jacobs  sat  in  a  chair  directly 
in  front  of  me,  as,  holding  the  paper  in  my  hand,  and 
touching  the  salient  points,  I  proceeded  to  answer  his 
arguments. 

So  I  began,  "The  Bible  tells  us  about  a  debate  which 
God  had  with  the  devil  in  reference  to  Job.  In  this  de- 
bate, if  you  will  read  the  book  of  Job,  you  will  see  that 
God  told  the  devil  that  Job  was  a  perfect  man,  and  asked 
if  he  had  considered  him,  how  there  was  none  like  him 
in  the  land.     History  repeats  itself,  over  and  over,  as 


332  AuTOBIOGRAPflv     Or 

the  ages  roll  on  and  disembogue  into  eternity,  so,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  we  have  this  same  debate  now  about 
Job.  It  was  not  my  pleasure  to  meet  him  as  I  did  not 
live  on  the  earth  in  his  day.  Therefore  I  personally  know 
nothing  about  him,  but  simply  give  you  what  God  tells 
me,  and  assure  you  that  I  verily  believe  it.  I  see  in 
the  Bible,  and  so  do  you,  that  God  says  Job  was  a  perfect 
man,  and  told  the  devil  so.  Consequently  I  believe  it 
without  a  doubt.  If  Job  was  perfect,  since  grace  is 
free  and  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  others  can  be 
perfect,  too.  And  I  read  in  the  Bible  that  Hezekiah, 
Asa,  and  others,  were  perfect  in  their  generation. 

"While  God  said  Job  was  a  perfect  man,  Satan  denied 
it,  and  charged  him  with  much  imperfection.  We  have 
this  same  debate  now  going  on  between  Brother  Jacobs 
and  myself  in  reference  to  Job.  He  takes  the  position 
that  Job  was  not  a  perfect  man,  but  very  imperfect,  and 
in  that  he  precisely  agrees  with  Satan.  I  tell  you,  Job 
was  a  perfect  man,  for  the  simple  reason  that  God  said 
he  was,  and  I  believe  everything  God  says,  because  I 
know  He  cannot  be  mistaken.  I  am  glad  that  in  this 
debate  with  my  brother,  your  pastor,  I  am  on  God's 
side,  and  am  sorry  that  he  has  made  the  awful  mistake 
of  taking  the  devil's  side,  and  advise  him  now  to  recog- 
nize that  mistake  and  change  his  attitude,  bidding  adieu 
to  Satan  and  coming  over  on  God's  side." 

At  that  time,  Brother  Jacobs,  taking  his  hat,  walked 
out  of  the  door,  and  I  never  saw  him  afterward.  Every 
preacher  who  undertakes  to  argue  against  perfection,  or 
sanctification,  which  is  the  same  thing,  will  get  into  the 
same  trouble  and  find  himself  pulling  the  devil's  end  of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbioy,  A.  M.  333 

the  rope,  and  actually  helping  the  prince  of  the  bottom- 
less pit  to  propagate  his  falsehoods. 

Perfection  is  from  the  Latin,  facio,  to  make,  and  per, 
complete ;  therefore,  it  means  to  make  complete.  Sancti- 
fication  is  from  the  same  Latin  word,  facio  to  make,  and 
sanctus,  holy;  therefore  it  simply  means  the  work  by 
which  we  are  made  holy.  Here  you  see  sanctification 
and  perfection  are  precisely  synonymous. 

As  the  meeting  moved  on,  we  had  some  of  that  knock 
down  power,  which  you  saw  expounded  in  an  earlier 
part  of  this  chapter.  Among  those  thus  smitten  down 
was  a  stalwart  man  in  his  vigor  and  prime.  I  stayed 
with  the  seekers  till  eleven  P.  M.,  then  went  away  to  take 
my  needed  rest,  leaving  some  of  the  saints  to  watch  with 
those  who  could  not  get  away.  About  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  some  of  his  friends  procured  a  wagon  and 
carried  him  home  and  sent  for  the  doctor,  who  on  arrival 
diagnosed  him  thoroughly  and  decided  that  he  was  in 
perfect  health  and  nothing  at  all  wrong  with  his  body. 
Then  they  asked  him  why  he  could  not  walk.  The  doctor 
responded,  "I  cannot  tell  you;  I  only  know  that  he  has 
no  disease,  and  is  all  right  physically.  As  to  why  he 
cannot  walk,  you  will  have  to  ask  somebody  else."  So  he 
left  him,  but  when  the  Great  Physician  came  to  his  re- 
lief, he  had  more  life  and  activity  than  his  comforters. 

When  I  went  to  the  camp-meeting  in  the  country,  the 
following  surrimer,  I  found  quite  a  gifted  layman,  full 
of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  leading  the  embattled  host. 
Upon  investigation,  I  found  he  was  the  leading  steward 
who  tried  so  hard  to  close  the  doors  against  our  holiness 
meeting,  and  still  held  out,  after  the  sanctification  of  the 
presiding  elder  kept  them  wide  open.     The  air  was  full 


334  Autobiography    op 

of  conviction,  therefore  God's  lightning  reached  him  and 
gloriously  sanctified  him,  so  that  when  I  arrived  I  found 
him  the  leader  in  the  fight  against  sin.  Fortunately  for 
him,  he  was  an  honest  man,  like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  and 
open  to  conviction.  All  such  are  very  apt  to  get  into 
the  light  sooner  or  later. 

Though  I  had  many  calls  to  the  West  Texas  Con- 
ference, bordering  on  the  Gulf  and  Old  Mexico,  about 
two  years  elapsed  after  I  began  my  work  in  that  great 
dominion  of  the  Southwest,  before  I  was  able  to  reach 
that  distant  land.  With  ample  calls  to  keep  me  all  winter, 
I  ran  through  the  state,  passing  multitudes  of  pressing 
calls,  in  order  to  serve  the  brethren  in  the  West  Con- 
ference. My  first  appointment  was  at  Blanco,  a  county 
seat,  forty  miles  north  of  San  Marcus,  where  we  dis- 
embarked from  the  Sunset  Railroad.  Having  with  my 
junior  co-laborer  stopped  at  a  hotel,  the  Methodist  pastor, 
characteristic  of  Southern  hospitality,  sent  for  us  to  come 
and  stay  at  the  parsonage.  Therefore,  responsive  to  his 
kind  invitation,  we  gladly  availed  ourselves  of  his  gen- 
erosity. Sanctification  puts  us  where  we  have  no  secrets, 
therefore  I  not  only  told  him  all  of  my  calls  by  his  breth- 
ren, but  presented  him  my  books  on  sanctification,  of 
which  at  that  early  day  I  had  only  written  three. 

The  next  morning  embarking  on  the  hack,  we  went 
away  twenty-five  miles  to  our  appointment.  There  the 
Lord  gave  us  a  glorious  revival.  When  we  returned  to 
San  Marcus  to  leave  on  the  railroad,  calling  at  the 
parsonage  whither  our  mail  was  ordered,  and  reading  it, 
I  found  every  door  closed  except  one,  and  that  was 
Uvalde,  a  county  seat,  far  out  on  the  Mexican  border.  The 
reason  why  they  all  closed  against  me  was  because  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  GodbEY,  A.  M.  335 

pastor  at  San  Marcus,  to  whom  I  had  communicated  my 
entire  program  and  presented  my  books,  had  written  to 
every  one  of  them,  sounding  the  alarm  trumpet,  notify- 
ing them  of  their  awful  impending  danger  in  having 
made  the  mistake  of  calling  a  wild,  fanatical  holiness 
crank,  who  would  certainly  ruin  their  church  if  he  ever 
got  into  it,  and  exhorting  them  to  close  at  once  and  write 
me  at  that  office,  rescinding  their  calls,  and  he  would 
see  that  I  got  it. 

The  only  reason  why  Uvalde  was  not  closed,  was  be- 
cause the  pastor  was  a  Gospel  son  of  mine,  having 
preached  in  my  district  three  years,  when  I  was  presiding 
elder.  Therefore  he  did  not  heed  the  warning  given, 
but  kept  the  door  wide  open,  only  hoping  that  I  would 
come.  Therefore  we  went  away  two  hundred  miles  over 
the  Sunset  Route,  arriving  on  Wednesday.  The  town  of 
five  thousand  was  the  emporium  of  a  great  cowboy 
region,  where  the  people  made  their  living  by  their  herds 
and  flocks  out  on  the  ranches.  About  half  of  the  popula- 
tion were  Mexicans.  I  found  it  significantly  the  "Wild 
West,"  the  rendezvous  of  ruffians,  thieves,  gamblers  and 
murderers,  who,  having  committed  crimes  in  the  States, 
had  fled  from  justice. 

When  we  began  the  meetings  in  the  Methodist  Church, 
which  was  the  largest  in  the  city,  I  found  just  a  few  old 
people  who  cheered  me  with  a  clear  testimony  to  their 
justification.  They  had  a  grand  choir,  consisting  of 
about  forty,  who  sang  melodiously  and  vociferously,  but 
I  hardly  think  any  of  them  knew  the  Lord.  Though 
there  was  a  large  membership,  in  the  clear  light  of  the 
Spirit  and  facilitated  by  His  beautiful  gift  denominated, 
"discernment  of  the  spirits,"   1   Cor.   12:8-11, -I  quickly 


336  Autobiography   op 

saw  that  it  was  not  worth  while  for  me  to  spend  time 
preaching  sanctification  to  the  very  few  justified  people 
in  my  audience,  but  the  work  incumbent  upon  me,  by  the 
help  of  the  Lord,  was  to  preach  conviction  on  the  multi- 
tudes of  lost  souls  who  encouraged  me  with  a  splendid 
curiosity  congregation.  Therefore  I  took  Mount  Sinai 
for  my  pulpit  and  proceeded  as  God  gave  me  His  thun- 
derbolts, lightning-shafts ,  earthquakes,  cyclones  and 
typhoons,  to  hurl  them  on  the  Hellward-bound  multitude 
with  all  my  might,  as  God  constantly  gave  me  a  vivid 
panorama  of  a  bottomless  Hell,  with  those  people  in 
solid  columns  rushing  toward  it  at  race  horse  speed.  I 
saw  most  demonstratively  that  the  devil  had  them  by 
the  throat,  and  was  dragging  them  into  Hell.  I  had 
moved  along  on  this  awful  Hell  and  damnation  line  and 
did  not  know  that  I  was  making  them  terribly  mad.  I 
was  doing  my  best  to  alarm  their  guilty  fears  before  it 
was  eternally  too  late.  Therefore  with  the  long  Gospel 
mattock,  I  dug  up  their  sins,  exposing  them  without 
distinction  or  mercy.  Of  course,  nearly  all  of  my  audi- 
ence were  guilty  of  dark  iniquities,  bloody  atrocities, 
terrible  crimes  and  diabolical  transgressions  of  various 
sorts.  Amid  all  of  my  arduous  efforts  to  portray  the 
dismal  doom  of  the  damned,  the  unutterable  horrors  of 
the  bottomless  pit,  and  the  revolting  contemplations 
clustering  around  an  eternity  of  woe,  I  was  simply  doing 
my  best  to  snatch  them  as  brands  from  the  eternal  burn- 
ing. 

I  was  preaching  for  conviction,  having  called  no  seek- 
ers, but  patiently  waiting  amid  an  assiduous  tide  while 
the  Holy  Spirit  was  doing  His  work,  fastening  convic- 
tion on  them  which  they  would  not  be  able  to  cast  off. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  M.  337 

Sunset  was  the  schedule  time  for  the  night  meetings 
to  begin  with  song  and  prayer,  for  I  was  sedulously 
availing  myself  of  all  the  help  I  could  get  in  public 
prayer  for  the  conviction  of  the  lost  people.  My  shot 
proved  too  hot  for  that  magnificent  worldly  choir,  in 
which,  as  I  was  reliably  informed,  saloon  clerks, 
gamblers,  blasphemers,  libertines,  and  drinking  men  were 
participants.  Therefore  my  terrific  preaching  on  the 
doom  of  the  wicked  soon  skedaddled  that  splendid  choir; 
leaving  the  singing  for  the  few  people  who  were  blessed 
with  the  knowledge  and  fear  of  God. 

One  evening  when  I  was  standing  on  the  veranda  and 
ringing  the  bell  for  half  an  hour  by  the  sun,  good  old 
Brother  Walker,  a  superannuated  Methodist  preacher, 
who  was  living  there  with  his  sons,  came  to  me  and  said, 
"Quit  ringing  that  bell,  and  go  with  me  to  our  house, 
where  we  aim  to  guard  you  till  the  two  o'clock  eastbound 
train,  and  send  you  away  before  they  kill  you;  for  they 
have  gotten  so  mad  at  your  plain,  straight,  rough  preach- 
ing, so  boldly  exposing  all  of  their  sins,  that  they  have 
taken  gross  offense  and  are  going  to  mob  you  to-night." 

I  knew  it  was  coming,  as  it  was  almost  a  daily  occur- 
rence to  kill  men  there.  The  last  night  I  was  at  Blanco, 
a  woman  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  warned  me  not  to  go  to 
Uvalde  because  her  dear  brother  had  been  killed  there. 
When  I  arrived  in  Uvalde  an  old  Methodist  preacher 
met  me  and  told  me  that  he  brought  four  promising  sons 
to  that  place  and  they  had  all  been  killed.  1  had  gone 
out  and  walked  through  the  graveyard  and  seen  super- 
scriptions on  the  tombstones  stating  that  the  inmates 
were  murdered.  I  saw  a  double  grave  superscribed, 
"These  men  were  both  murdered,"  giving  the  date.     I 


338  Autobiography   of 

suppose  all  the  men  there  went  armed.  But  I  did  not 
heed  the  old  preacher  but  continued  to  ring  the  bell.  He 
still  tried  to  get  me  to  quit,  assuring  me  that  I  would 
have  no  congregation,  because  they  had  been  cursing  me 
all  over  town  and  arrangements  were  made  to  mob  and 
kill  me  that  night.  But  he  said  that  the  good  people 
had  made  arrangements  to  guard  me  at  his  house  till 
the  first  east  bound  train  at  two  o'clock  and  put  me  on 
it,  thus  sending  me  away  and  saving  my  life.  Then  I 
said,  "Brother  Walker,  we  will  turn  the  proposition 
round ;  you  stay  here  with  me  and  I  will  protect  you, 
for  I  see  that  you  are  afraid,  and  I  am  not."  So  I  con- 
tinued to  ring  the  bell,  and,  as  I  expected,  a  large  audi- 
ence assembled  and  filled  the  house,  which  was  quite 
capacious. 

We  went  on  with  the  introductory  songs  and  prayers 
beginning  at  sunset  and  the  people  gathering  till  I  sup- 
posed they  had  nearly  all  arrived,  then  I  proceeded  to 
take  for  my  text,  Psa.  9:  17,  "The  wicked  shall  be  turned 
into  Hell  and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God."  As  I 
looked  them  in  the  face  and  dispensed  to  them  the  awful 
truth  of  their  coming  doom,  I  concluded  that  old  Brother 
Walker  was  correct  in  regard  to  their  purposes.  I  saw 
the  lurid  glare  of  Hell  in  their  faces  and  the  very  fire 
of  the  pit  flashing  from  their  eyes,  and  could  hear  them 
grit  their  teeth,  and  could  see  clearly  that  Satan  had  them 
and  that  they  were  full  of  demons;  I  realized  that  the 
very  powers  of  Hell  were  present.  Rely  upon  it,  I 
preached  my  best,  and  God  wonderfully  helped  me. 

My  sermon  was  lengthy  and  all  of  it  on  the  horrible 
doom  of  the  lost,  describing  the  unutterable  horrors  of 
Hell,  and  doing  my  utmost  to  portray  an  eternity  of  woe, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  339 

telling  them  that  God  sent  me  there  to  warn  them  of 
their  impending  danger,  and  He  would  put  me  on  the 
witness  block  in  the  day  of  judgment  to  testify  against 
them,  because  I  had  faithfully  delivered  God's  solemn 
warning,  and  they  had  hardened  their  hearts  and  stiffen- 
ed their  necks.  But  I  would  be  clear  of  their  blood  in 
that  great  day  when  we  would  all  stand  before  the  flam- 
ing judgment  bar. 

As  I  went  on  I  could  see  changes  in  their  countenances, 
paleness  superseding  the  redness  of  wrath  and  indigna- 
tion. As  I  continued  to  portray  the  awful  doom  of  the 
judgment,  and  to  paint  an  eternity  in  the  flames  of  Hell, 
I  began  to  hear  groans,  sighs  and  sobs.  These  increased 
more  and  more  and  became  louder  and  more  acute ;  then 
they  began  to  fall  from  their  seats  and  to  scream,  actually 
by  their  moans,  groans,  shrieks  and  cries,  drowning  my 
voice.  Then  for  the  first  time  during  the  meeting,  I 
threw  the  altar  open  for  the  people  who  wanted  their 
sins  forgiven  and  their  souls  saved  before  it  was  eternally 
too  late.  Behold;  one  hundred  people  made  for  the 
mercy-seat,  falling  at  the  altar  and  crying. 

Oh,  what  a  revival  followed!  Twenty-three  days  I 
there  remained,  witnessing  the  mighty  works  of  God. 
The  conversions  were  bright  as  a  sunburst,  and  all,  so 
fast  as  they  got  saved,  went  to  woik  heroically  at  the 
altar  with  the  seekers,  and  in  the  congregation  with  the 
sinners. 

Conviction  so  rested  on  the  town  that  it  was  said  they 
closed  all  the  saloons,  and  they  were  many,  and  they  had 
good  reason  to  close  them  because  all  of  their  clerks  were 
at  the  mourner's  bench.  The  town  was  notorious  as  a 
gambling  hell.    They  closed  all  of  the  gambling  houses. 


340  Autobiography   op 

The  drummers  coming,  tood  on  the  streets  bewildered 
and  saying,  "What  in  the  world  is  the  matter  with 
Uvalde?"  It  seemed  that  a  heavenly  cyclone  had  dropped 
down  and  seized  the  whole  town  in  its  whorls,  as  if  the 
archangel  of  doom  had  already  descended  and  was  blow- 
ing his  mighty  trumpet,  for  a  solemn  awe  had  taken  pos- 
session  of  all  the  people.  Debauched  men,  drunkards, 
gamblers,  libertines  and  murderers  were  coming  to  me 
in  vacant  hours  and  saying,  "Preacher,  are  you  praying 
for  me?  Do  you  not  know  that  I  am  the  worst  man 
in  the  world?"  It  seemed  that  everybody  you  could  find 
was  either  crying  over  sin  or  talking  for  Jesus  or  shout- 
ing the  praises  of  God. 

The  second  Saturday  and  Sunday  of  our  revival  was 
the  regular  time  of  the  quarterly  meeting.  When  Dr. 
Harris,  the  presiding  elder  of  San  Antonio  District, 
came  along,  I  met  him  with  congratulations  of  rejoicing 
and  praising  God  for  his  arrival,  saying  to  him,  "My 
dear  brother,  I  am  an  old  presiding  elder  and  know  the 
duties  of  your  office.  Of  course  you  are  in  charge  during 
your  appointed  time  and  I  am  only  an  auditor  and  your 
humble  helper  at  your  option."  Then  he  said,  "No, 
brother,  please  excuse  me  from  preaching,  as  I  shall  not 
take  your  place  in  any  of  the  evening  services."  When 
I  insisted  that  he  should  feel  free  to  fill  his  regular  ap- 
pointment, he  said,  "I  have  read  in  the  Bible  of  a  man 
by  the  name  of  Uzzah,  who  dropped  dead  because  he 
took  hold  of  God's  ark.  I  shall  certanily  profit  by  his 
sad  fate,  for  I  have  never,  (and  he  was  on  old  man) 
seen  a  meeting  like  this  in  all  of  my  life.  The  power  of 
God  here  manifest  throughout  this  whole  town  actually 
excels  anything  I  have  ever  known.    Therefore  I  am  not 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  341 

willing  to  do  anything,  lest  I  might  grieve  the  Holy 
Ghost,  who  is  working  here  as  I  never  saw  in  all  my 
life.  Truly  the  people  old  and  young,  great  and  small, 
saints  and  sinners,  all  manifest  to  me  that  they  are 
wrought  upon  by  the  Holy  Ghost  as  I  never  saw  before. 
And  I  do  realize  that  it  is  most  unmistakably  the  pres- 
ence and  power  of  God."  Such  was  the  verdict  of  the 
presiding  elder  on  his  arrival  Saturday  morning  to  hold 
his  quarterly  meeting.  He  utterly  refusing  to  take  the 
meeting  it  devolved  on  me  to  do  the  preaching ;  there- 
fore I  preached  to  them  on  sanctification,  closing  with  an 
invitation  for  seekers.  Among  others,  he  took  his  place 
at  the  altar ;  the  Lord  sent  the  power  and  souls  tided  over. 
After  dismissal  he  took  me  aside  and  said,  "I  have  a 
confession  to  make  to  you.  Whereas  the  preachers  in 
my  district  had  called  you  to  come  and  hold  revival 
rneetings  for  them,  since  your  arrival  they  have  again 
written  to  you,  rescinding  all  of  those  engagements  and 
closing  their  churches  against  you."  I  responded, 
"Please,  brother,  give  yourself  no  trouble  about  that;  it 
is  all  right;  God  will  open  doors  enough."  Then  he  pro- 
ceeded, "But,  brother,  hold  on  and  let  me  make  my  con- 
fession. You  must  not  blame  those  pastors  for  rescind- 
ing their  calls  and  closing  you  out.  /  am  to  blame  for 
that,  because  I  ordered  them  to  do  so,  pursuant  to  a 
letter  received  from  the  pastor  at  San  Marcus,  stating 
that  he  had  entertained  you  in  his  own  house,  and  gotten 
acquainted  with  you  and  found  you  to  be  a  wild  fanatic, 
crazy  on  holiness,  and  if  I  did  not  want  all  the  churches 
ruined,  the  thing  to  do  was  to  keep  you  out.  There- 
fore I  wrote  to  all  of  my  preachers,  as  he  sent  me  the 
list  of  your  calls,  (as  you  had  given  it  to  him),  ordering 


342  Autobiography    of 

them  to  write  you  at  San  Marcus,  in  care  of  that  pastor, 
rescinding  their  calls.  I  also  wrote  to  Brother  Shaw 
at  this  place  to  rescind  and  close  you  out,  but  I  am  very 
glad  he  did  not  obey  my  order,  which  I  assure  you  I 
gave  in  the  integrity  of  my  heart.  As  to  all  the  balance, 
I  see  now  I  was  led  astray  by  the  San  Marcus  pastor, 
who  (as  I  hope,  innocently)  misrepresented  you  as  a 
wild  fanatic.  I  find  you  nothing  but  an  old-style  Metho- 
dist preacher  on  the  Wesleyan  line  and  preaching  (as 
we  all  ought  to)  with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
Heaven.  I  have  thoroughly  investigated  to  my  own  sat- 
isfaction, since  I  came  to  this  town,  and  find  it  is  truly 
the  work  of  God  and  is  as  free  from  fanaticism  as  any- 
thing I  ever  saw,  and  just  what  I  want  throughout  San 
Antonio  District.  I  will  now  write  at  once  to  all  these 
brethren,  confessing  my  mistake  and  telling  them  to  re- 
new their  calls  at  once." 

The  preachers  thereafter  no  longer  waited  on  the  slow 
run  of  the  mails,  but  poured  telegrams  on  me  from  all 
directions,  urging  me  to  come  at  once.  The  result  was 
that  I  found  the  whole  Conference  open  to  me  and  stayed 
there  six  months,  going  from  city  to  city,  and  witnessing 
the  mighty  work  of  God. 

The  time  of  the  quarterly  meeting  was  really  oppor- 
tune, coming  as  it  did  twelve  days  after  my  arrival,  be- 
cause I  found  Satan  so  impregnably  fortified  that  if  the 
quarterly  meeting  had  come  off  a  week  sooner,  it  would 
have  been  too  early  for  the  coming  power.  Consequently 
the  presiding  elder  would  have  skedaddled  me  out;  but 
the  twelve  days'  run  by  the  blessing  of  God  had  brought 
us  over  the  crisis.  Then  the  walls  of  Jericho  had  fallen 
down  flat  and  God  had  descended,  so  putting  His  sub- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  343 

duing  hand  on  the  whole  community  that  all  of  the  people 
coming,  recognized  His  presence,  halted  in  their  tracks, 
trembled  and  soliloquized,  "Surely  God  is  in  this  place, 
and  this  is  none  other  than  the  house  of  God  and  the 
gate  to  Heaven." 

In  this  we  have  a  brilliant  illustration  of  what  God  will 
do  if  you  are  true  to  Him.  That  place  was  so  awfully 
wicked,  and  the  Church  so  captured  by  Satan,  that  the 
terrific  Gospel,  which  was  absolutely  indispensable  to 
their  conviction,  actually  provoked  that  mob,  who  aimed 
to  kill  me.  But  God  is  always  more  than  a  match  for 
the  devil  and  all  his  myrmidons.  He  came  to  my  relief, 
and  put  down  His  omnipotent  hand  on  all  the  people  in 
a  conviction  which  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  paralyzed 
all  their  Satanic  devices  and  put  the  importunate  cry  in 
the  deep  interior  of  every  heart,  "What  shall  I  do  to  be 
saved?"  Even  the  presiding  elder,  who,  with  all  his 
culture,  (for  he  was  both  an  A.  M.  and  a  D.  D.)  had 
been  deluded  by  Satan  and  manipulated  to  run  me  out 
of  the  whole  country,  in  one  short  hour  after  his  arrival 
radically  revolutionized,  confessed,  and  rescinded  all  of 
his  actions  against  me,  and  became  my  right  hand  helper, 
throwing  every  door  open  and  writing  to  all  the  preach- 
ers notifying  them  that  it  was  a  God-sent  opportunity  to 
have  such  a  revival  in  their  churches  which  they  badly 
needed  but  never  dreamed  of. 

My  own  heart  was  never  disturbed  by  all  of  those 
machinations  of  the  enemy,  but  I  rested  perfectly  in 
Jesus,  fully  assured  that  He  would  manage  His  part  if 
I  would  be  true.  Though  I  was  fifteen  hundred  miles 
from  home,  having  come  that  distance  to  answer  the 
calls   of  the  preachers,   still   God  took   care   of   me   and 


344  Autobiography    op 

gave  me  victory.  Never  be  discouraged  at  the  most 
formidable  combinations  against  you;  great  things  arc 
as  easy  for  Omnipotence  as  the  smallest. 

From  Uvalde,  we  went  to  Florisvillc,  another  county- 
seat.  There,  with  an  audience  of  fifteen  hundred,  the 
Lord  gave  us  another  glorious  revival,  hundreds  getting 
converted,  reclaimed  or  sanctified.  While  I  was  moving 
ahead,  preaching  the  Sinai  Gospel  with  all  my  might, 
utilizing  the  engineery  of  prayer  and  testimony,  co-oper- 
atively with  my  Sinaic  thunder,  lightning,  earthquakes, 
cyclones  and  typhoons,  the  Baptist  pastor  who  had  al- 
ready been  sanctified  and  was  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  meeting,  got  up  and  spoke  about  two  minutes,  then 
threw  the  altar  open  for  sinners  who  wanted  salvation 
to  come  and  seek.  About  eighty  of  those  wild  cowboys 
crowded  to  the  altar.  I  had  already  been  inviting  seekers 
for  sanctification,  but  had  given  no  invitation  to  sinners 
because  I  did  not  think  the  conviction  was  sufficient. 

In  those  days  I  never  held  little  short  meetings,  as  I 
do  now,  f:.ir  the  especial  edification  of  the  Lord's  people 
and  the  conversion  of  sinners  who  are  ripe  enough,  but 
at  that  time  I  made  it  a  rule  to  stay  till  Satan  was  de- 
feated and  the  glorious  victory  came. 

This  premature  call  for  sinners  really  damaged  the 
work,  because  we  found  it  difficult  for  them  to  reach  a 
satisfactory  conversion,  because  their  conviction  was  not 
deep  enough.  As  a  rule,  our  holiness  people  are  too  ex- 
peditious in  their  revival  work.  They  call  for  penitents 
prematurely  and  find  them  difficult  to  lead  into  a  bright 
and  glorious  experience.  Without  a  genuine  Holy  Ghost 
conviction,  all  sinners  are  gum  logs,  neither  splitable  into 
rails,  nor  rivable  into  boards,  but  the  real  and  potent 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  345 

illumination  and  conviction  of  the  Holy  Ghost  turns  all 
of  these  old  gum  trees  into  chestnut  and  white  oak,  so 
that  they  split  like  a  top  and  rive  like  lightning. 

While  I  was  always  flooded  with  calls,  I  made  it  a 
rule  never  unduly  to  expedite  the  work,  thus  going  ahead 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Consequently  other  calls  had  to  wait 
till  I  could  reach  them.  I  made  it  a  rule  to  preach  Sinai 
till  conviction  settled  on  the  people  like  a  nightmare. 
Then  it  was  easy  to  get  them  brightly  and  triumphantly 
converted.  I  have  closed  many  a  meeting  without  an 
altar  call,  when  I  knew  that  they  would  crowd  it  if  I 
gave  them  an  invitation,  but  I  wanted  the  Spirit  to  have 
time  to  do  His  work.  I  have  frequently  gone  on  till 
the  sinners  would  come  to  me,  trembling  like  Belshazzar, 
and  say,  "Preacher,  are  you  never  going  to  have  a 
mourner's  bench?  I  feel  that  I  will  be  dead  and  in  Hell 
before  the  sun  goes  down,  if  you  do  not  give  me  a  chance 
to  seek  the  Lord."  Then  of  course  I  would  open  the 
altar. 

Premature  calls  not  only  give  unworkable  material, 
on  which  to  wear  ourselves  out,  but  conduce  to  super- 
ficial professions,  which  are  worse  than  none.  Evan- 
gelists often  think  that  a  long  meeting  will  not  receive 
proportional  financial  support.  I  always  found  it  the 
very  opposite.  The  most  liberal  financial  remuneration 
I  ever  received  was  for  meetings  running  for  six  weeks. 
Paul's  first  protracted  meeting  at  Corinth  lasted  eighteen 
months.  An  eleven  months'  protracted  meeting  consti- 
tutes  a   bright   oasis   in   my   pilgrimage. 

Seguin,  Texas,  a  flourishing  county  seat  of  eight  thou- 
sand, was  also  the  scene  of  a  great  battle  and  a  glorious 
victory.     On   arrival,   the  cultured  pastor,   a  collegiate 


346  Autobiography   09 

graduate  and  a  member  of  the  General  Conference,  re- 
sponsive to  my  interrogations  in  reference  to  Christian 
union  and  co-operation,  answered  me  very  encouragingly, 
"Yes,  brother,  that  is  all  right.  Our  eight  churches  in 
this  city  are  in  perfect  harmony,  and  we  all  work  to- 
gether in  our  revival  meetings.  Therefore  you  can  per- 
fectly rely  on  their  sympathy  and  co-operation." 

However,  to  my  sorrow,  I  soon  found  that  the  union 
was  in  the  dance,  at  the  card  table,  and  in  the  whiskey 
bottle.  Looking  out  of  my  window  I  saw  two  men 
drinking  alternately  out  of  the  same  bottle,  and  asked  a 
citizen  who  they  were.  "Oh,  that  man  with  the  gray 
clothes  is  a  Methodist  steward,  and  the  gentleman  in 
blue  is  a  Baptist  deacon."  I  found  my  pastor  in  perfect 
harmony  with  all,  and  so  appreciative  with  the  Roman 
Catholics  that  I  actually  wondered  why  he  did  not  join 
them.  He  tried  in  vain  to  get  me  to  join  him  in  the 
celebration  of  some  of  their  days. 

Having  reconnoitered  the  situation  thoroughly,  I  found 
that  nothing  but  straight,  red-hot  Gospel  dynamite  would 
amount  to  anything  in  the  prosecution  of  the  contem- 
plated siege.  Therefore  I  opened  fire  on  the  enemy's 
works  all  along  the  line,  sparing  nothing,  but  bombarding 
every  citadel  which  Diabolus  had  fortified  for  the  pro- 
tection of  his  people,  not  only  throughout  "Vanity  Fair," 
but  in  all  the  churches  as  well.  The  Lord  wonderfully 
helped  me  to  do  my  best.  I  fought  like  a  dog  in  a 
yellow  jacket's  nest,  wielding  my  gattling  gun  without 
distinction  or  mercy.  The  Holy  Spirit  signally  used 
His  Word. 

After  several  days  of  bombardment,  I  opened  the  altar, 
which  was  crowded  and  filled  with  seekers.     I  immedi- 


Ruv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  347 

ately  found  myself  lassoed  by  Sataii  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  a  cultured,  high  toned  pastor,  who  seemed 
to  be  utterly  destitute  of  spiritual  illumination.  Elec- 
trified with  the  splendid  audience,  and  thrilled  with  en- 
couragement when  he  saw  them  crowd  the  altar,  he, 
thinking,  "Now  is  the  time  for  me  to  augment  the  mem- 
bership of  my  church,"  availing  himself  of  his  pastoral 
prerogative,  as  soon  as  I  got  the  altar  filled  with  pen- 
itents, instead  of  working  to  get  them  saved,  proceeded 
at  once  to  exhort  them  all  to  join  the  Church,  and  gave 
them  an  urgent  invitation. 

The  result  was  that  he  broke  up  the  altar  service,  and 
got  no  joiners,  because  convicted  people  do  not  feel  like 
joining  the  Church,  on  the  contrary  they  realize  their 
utter  unworthiness  to  take  that  step.  He  persisted  how- 
ever in  his  church-joining  enterprise,  though  receiving 
no  encouragement  in  the  way  of  response. 

Thus  I  was  actually  caught  in  Satan's  trap,  and  man- 
acled by  the  irresistible  authority  of  the  pastor.  Of 
course,  I  could  do  nothing  but  turn  the  trouble  over 
to  God,  who  sent  in  the  presiding  elder  of  the  district  to 
cut  the  gordian  knot  and  set  the  meeting  free.  I  found 
him  at  the  opposite  pole  of  the  battery,  the  very  reverse 
of  the  pastor;  exceedingly  humble,  good,  sensible,  and 
in  full  sympathy  with  the  Wesleyan  doctrine  of  sancti- 
fication,  he  was  earnestly  seeking  the  blessing  but  was 
not  clear  in  the  experience. 

In  a  private  interview,  having  posted  him  in  reference 
to  the  dilemma,  he  told  me  to  go  ahead,  preach,  and 
throw  the  altar  open  and  make  my  full  calculation  upon 
having  my  own  way — he  would  attend  to  the  pastor. 
Sure  enough,  when  they  crowded  the  altar,  the  pastor 


348  Autobiography   o* 

got  up  to  give  his  invitation  again,  taking  it  for  granted 
that  all  who  came  to  the  altar  ought  to  join  the  Church, 
holding  the  exceedingly  superficial  view  of  the  Spirit's 
work  which  led  him  to  conclude  that  the  very  fact  of 
their  coming  to  the  altar  was  ample  evidence  that  they 
were  in  good  fix  to  join  the  Church,  whereas  the  awful 
Sinai  preaching  that  I  was  giving  them  brought  such  a 
conviction  that  they  would  never  join  the  Church  until 
they  got  converted,  which  is  certainly  the  normal  econ- 
omy of  Gospel  grace. 

When  the  pastor  was  about  to  open  the  doors  of  his 
church,  the  presiding  elder  walked  up,  put  his  hand  on 
his  shoulder  and  said,  "My  dear  brother,  as  presiding 
elder  of  this  district,  I  feel  that  I  have  some  official  rights, 
among  which  I  claim  the  privilege  of  controlling  this 
meeting."  Then  the  pastor  very  politely  responded,  "All 
right,  brother,  I  turn  it  all  over  to  you  and  shall  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  the  management  of  it;  it  is 
now  in  your  hands."  Then,  in  the  presence  of  the  pastor, 
the  presiding  elder  said  to  me ;  "Now,  Brother  Godbey, 
the  control  of  the  meeting  is  in  my  hands.  Therefore 
I  turn  it  all  over  to  you,  now  you  are  monarch  of  all  you 
survey.  Your  rights  there  are  none  to  dispute."  Then  of 
course  the  brakes  were  forever  gone,  and  we  had  a 
wonderful  soul-saving  time.  There  were  people  of  all 
denominations  and  outsiders  crowding  the  altar,  praying 
through  to  God  and  rising  to  witness  to  His  mighty 
power  to  save.  Before  the  meeting  was  over,  we  saw 
the  glorious  Christian  union  about  which  I  had  spoken 
to  the  pastor.  Whereas  before  it  had  been  Satan's  union 
in  his  kingdom,  we  saw  that  union  now  wonderfully  ver« 
ified  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  349 

After  waiting  long,  the  Lord  opened  the  way  for  me, 
responsive  to  the  pastor's  call,  to  go  to  Whitesburg, 
Texas.  There  we  met  some  noble  C —  P —  holiness 
people,  who  gathered  from  the  surrounding  country  from 
far  and  near,  delighted  with  the  prospect  of  a  holiness 
meeting.  With  that  heroic  working  band,  we  could  have 
had  a  wonderful  revival,  which  the  pastor  so  much  de- 
sired. But  after  about  a  week  of  hard  work,  laying 
the  foundation  for  a  great  Pentecostal  blessing  on  the 
people,  the  carnal  element  of  the  Methodist  Church  un- 
fortunately having  the  pre-eminence  and  hating  good, 
humble,  spiritual  people,  complained  that  they  had  come 
in  and  taken  the  meeting  out  of  their  hands,  which  was 
not  true.  God  had  sent  these  good  people,  as  that  town 
imperatively  needed  a  working  force  to  defeat  the  devil 
and  pray  down  a  revival  and  lead  the-  people  to  the  Lord. 
But  the  enemy  forced  the  pastor  peremptorily  to  close 
the  meeting;  thus  signally  defeating  the  revival  which 
was  so  much  needed. 

I  knew  that  he  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit  in  obeying  his 
carnal  members  instead  of  God.  When  shortly  after 
that  I  heard  that  he  had  died,  I  was  deeply  impressed 
that  God  took  him  out  of  the  world  for  that  signal  act 
of  maladministration,  by  which  he  made  Hell  rejoice 
and  Heaven  weep. 

A  similar  case  once  occurred  in  Kentucky,  where  I 
went  to  hold  a  holiness  meeting  in  the  Methodist  Church, 
by  invitation.  The  pastor  of  another  church,  an  able 
and  highly  educated  man,  having  heard  of  my  appoint- 
ment, published  that  he  would  preach  in  his  church  the 
first  Sunday  morning  of  our  meeting,  aiming  to  fore- 
stall and  defeat  our  meeting  by  proving  to  the  people 


350  Autobiography    op 

the  falsity  of  our  position ;  utterly  refuting  and  anni- 
hilating the  doctrine  and  experience  of  entire  sanctifica- 
tion.  Sure  enough  there  was  a  great  meeting  in  his 
church  that  very  Sunday  morning,  but  it  was  to  attend 
his  funeral,  as  he  had  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  to  all 
dropped  dead  in  his  tracks,  the  preceding  Thursday. 
As  he  was  a  leading  Free  Mason,  they  had  postponed 
his  funeral  till  Sunday,  so  as  to  give  ample  advertise- 
ment and  enjoy  the  leisure  day  for  the  grand  convoca- 
tion of  the  fraternity. 

We  had  a  similar  corroboration  in  case  of  one  of  the 
greatest  theologians  ever  in  America,  who,  early  in  the 
Holiness  Movement,  prepared  a  series  of  able  lectures  in 
which  he  claimed  to  utterly  refute  the  doctrine  and  ex- 
perience. After  Inskip,  MacDonald,  and  a  few  others 
who  were  then  preaching  it,  had  visited  the  city  and, 
with  the  blessing  of  God,  had  led  some  of  the  people 
into  the  experience,  the  anti-holiness  people  sent  for  Dr. 
H to  come  and  dig  it  out  by  the  roots. 

In  a   New  Jersey  city,  where   God  had   sanctified   a' 

band  of  people,  Dr.  H had  an  appointment  to  deliver 

his  lecture  and  demolish  the  "fanaticism" — meanwhile 
the  holiness  people  wrote  to  all  of  the  leading  preachers 
in  the  Movement  (few  in  number  at  that  time),  to  unite 
with  them  in  prayer  to  God  to  defeat  the  contemplated 
assault  against  His  work,  and  to  protect  it  for  His  own 
sake. 

Dr.  H came  and  had  delivered  one  lecture,  which 

was  introductory,  getting  the  people  ready  for  that  im- 
portant work  of  demolishing  their  fanaticism ;  then  he 
took  sick  and  met  the  audience  no  more,  but  soon  died, 
and  was  carried  away  in  his  coffin. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  351 

I  also  had  a  parallel  case  in  a  Colorado  city,  whither 
I  was  called  for  a  revival.  I  found  a  splendid  church 
edifice,  a  large,  wealthy  membership  and  a  vigorous,  able 
preacher;  everything  encouraging  except  the  spiritual 
interest,  which  was  constantly  at  a  very  low  ebb.  How- 
ever, about  a  dozen  good  holiness  people  gathered  in  to 
enjoy  the  Feast  of  the  Tabernacles  and  lend  a  helping 
hand  to  push  forward  the  salvation  wagon.  I  quickly 
saw  that  my  deep  digging  with  the  sanctification  mat- 
tock was  going  awfully  hard  with  the  pastor.  I  began 
on  Monday  and  went  on  till  Friday,  when  he  just  seemed 
to  be  in  agony.  Therefore,  taking  me  aside,  with  flowing 
tears,  he  said,  "Brother  Godbey,  as  I  called  you  here,  I 
am  very  sorry  to  have  to  send  you  away,  but  I  cannot 
help  it.  Your  preaching  is  actually  killing  us  all ;  my 
wife  is  one  of  the  best  women  in  the  world,  and  you 
have  got  her  so  awfully  upset  that  she  has  not  slept  in 
three  nights.  J  thought  I  could  stand  it  better  but  I  have 
not  slept  in  two  nights;  and.  to  tell  you  the  truth,  my 
leading  members  are  walking  the  streets  like  crazy  men, 
actually  incapable  of  attending  to  their  business.  If  I 
do  not  send  you  away,  we  will  all  die.  I  have  a  good 
church  here  of  noble  Christians,  but  you  are  tearing  it 
all  to  pieces.  I  called  you  that  we  might  have  a  revival 
and  get  the  sinners  converted,  but  instead  of  that  your 
awful  preaching  is  actually  upsetting  and  smashing  all 
my  members  and  making  them,  and  me,  too,  feel  like 
we  have  no  religion." 

I  said,  "All  right,  brother,  T  bid  you  a  loving  adieu." 
I  never  saw  him  afterward.  He  weighed  one  hundred 
and  eighty,  and  was  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood,  but 
he  died  that  year.  .  He  said  to  people  who  told  me,  "I 


352  Autobiography  o* 

will  die  before  I  will  take  what  that  man  is  preaching." 
When  1  heard  of  his  death  so  soon  afterward,  I  felt 
deeply  impressed  that  God  took  him  at  his  word  and  let 
him  die. 

When  they  closed  me  out  at  Whitesburg,  Texas,  and 
T  had  to  leave,  it  so  happened  that  my  next  appointment 
was  five  hundred  miles  distant,  and,  as  usual,  I  had 
two  red-hot  young  men,  whom  I  carried  as  helpers  in 
the  work.  At  that  time  no  evangelists  in  the  South 
received  any  railroad  favor.  Therefore  we  needed  forty- 
five  dollars  to  buy  tickets  to  the  next  appointment  in 
northwest  Missouri.  From  the  day  the  Lord  sanctified 
me,  in  1868,  I  have  always  lived  by  faith,  never  charged 
anything  for  my  work,  nor  even  insinuated  for  a  contri- 
bution. As  these  people  had  rejected  us  and  closed  us 
out,  of  course,  I  would  not  dishonor  the  Lord  by  asking 
them  for  travelling  expenses. 

At  that  time,  we  lived  at  Carlysle,  Ky.  All  my  life 
I  always  made  it  a  rule  never  to  let  my  wife  get  out  of 
money,  even  if  I  borrowed  it.  In  my  travels  in  all  of 
the  early  years  of  my  ministry,  before  I  had  written 
books  and  carried  them  with  me  to  donate  and  sell  to 
people,  to  help  them  experimentally,  I  frequently  found 
it  necessary  to  borrow  money  to  make  my  next  run,  in- 
variably sending  back  the  first  I  got,  even  if  it  necessi- 
tated my  borrowing  again.  So  at  this  time  I  had  no 
money  anywhere  on  the  earth,  but  when  I  reached  this 
dilemma  and  the  time  came  for  us  to  travel,  minus  the 
necessary  finances,  I  got  on  my  knees  before  God,  and 
turned  over  to  Him  Farmers'  Bank  of  Carlysle,  Ky.  I 
stayed  on  my  knees  till  I  heard  from  Heaven  and  real- 
ized that  God  had  His  hand  on  that  bank;  then,  taking 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  353 

the  pastor  to  identify  me,  I  went  to  the  bank  in  Whites- 
burg,  and  presented  a  draft  on  the  Farmers'  Bank  of 
Carlysle,  Kentucky,  and  drew  out  all  the  money  we 
needed  to  purchase  the  three  full  fare  tickets.  Inde- 
pendently we  went  to  the  depot  with  shouts  of  victory 
ringing  from  our  lips,  bought  our  tickets  and  went  on 
our  way  rejoicing.  Long  before  we  completed  our  tour 
and  returned  to  Kentucky,  the  Lord  gave  me  the  money 
and  I  sent  it  to  the  bank. 

On  reaching  home  I  went  at  once  from  the  depot  to 
the  bank  to  face  the  officers  with  a  personal  apology 
for  drawing  on  them  when  I  had  not  a  cent  of  money 
on  deposit,  which  is  very  irregular,  from  a  financial 
standpoint.  Looking  over  the  counter  as  I  went  in. 
I  said  to  the  cashier,  "I  have  come  to  apologize  for 
drawing  on  you  when  I  had  no  money  on  deposit."  He 
looked  me  in  the  face  and  said,  as  a  tear  came  to  his 
eye,  "Preacher,  when  I  received  that  draft,  as  it  put  me 
in  an  awkward  position,  knowing  that  you  had  no  money 
here,  I  turned  it  over  to  the  Board  for  them  to  decide 
before  I  paid  it  off.  This  done,  then  I  read  it  to  them 
and  told  them  that  you  had  no  money  on  deposit  and 
asked  them  what  to  do.  After  a  silent  minute  the  oldest 
man  among  them  said,  'I  like  that  preacher;  he  is  an 
honest  fellow,  and  I  expect  he  is  in  a  tight  place ;  I 
move  that  we  pay  it.'  The  motion  carried  unanimously. 
So,  preacher,  if  you  get  in  a  tight  place  again,  call  on 
us  and  we  will  help  you  out." 

Pastor  Avarill  had  gathered  up  the  people,  built  a 
big  bush  arbor  and  pitched  a  camp-meeting  in  a  thickly 
settled  region  of  Cartright  Prairie,  Texas,  and  called 
your  humble  servant  to  preach.     The  people  had  grown 


354  Autobiography  op 

rich  and  prosperous,  cultivating  that  wonderful  soil, 
black  as  a  crow  and  about  one  dozen  feet  deep.  They 
had  been  much  neglected  by  the  Gospel  heralds  and  had 
grown  desperately  wicked.  Of  course  I  just  had  to  go 
down  into  the  cesspools  of  iniquity,  unearth  the  vices 
and  expose  their  follies,  without  distinction  or  mercy. 
We  had  an  awful  battle  with  the  powers  of  darkness  of 
earth  and  Hell  combined  against  us. 

As  the  days  went  by  the  battle  waxed  hotter  and  hot- 
ter. My  plain,  rough  preaching  made  them  awfully  mad. 
They  beat  me  twice  with  prairie  dirt  because  they  could 
not  find  rocks,  as  there  were  none  about,  but  those  clods 
felt  on  my  body  hard  as  rocks.  They  also  poured  the 
eggs  on  me  in  unstinted  profusion.  I  remember  well 
the  physique  of  the  hoodlum  who  led  the  ruffian  rabble 
in  egging  me.  I  could  see  old  Diabolus  in  him,  big  as 
a  rhinoceros.  Of  course  I  never  expected  to  hear  from 
him  again,  but  several  years  afterward  when  I  was 
preaching  for  the  Free  Methodists  in  St.  Louis,  they 
told  me  about  the  evangelist  who  had  conducted  the 
camp-meeting,  calling  my  name,  and  telling  the  circum- 
stance of  pelting  me  with  the  eggs,  saying  that  when  he 
threw  an  egg  with  all  the  power  of  his  stalwart  arm, 
hit  me  between  the  eyes,  deluging  my  face  and  knocking 
my  spectacles  off,  and  I  took  it  so  sweetly  and  lovingly, 
manifesting  not  the  slightest  resentment,  then  conviction 
struck  him  like  lightning.  Of  course  he  thought  nothing 
of  it,  expecting  it  to  evanesce  very  quickly,  but  in  this 
he  was  mistaken.  On  the  contrary  it  held  on  like  a  leech 
and  went  down  deeper  and  deeper  till  he  felt  he  would 
die,  broke  down,  sought  and  found  the  Lord.    Then  get- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  355 

ting  convicted  for  sanctification,  he  at  once  set  out  to 
get  it.  Toiling  on  day  after  day  and  trying  to  make  his 
consecration,  he  reached  the  point  when  he  had  actually 
run  up  against  great  old  China,  where  they  kill  the  mis- 
sionaries but  can  get  no  farther.  Then  he  said,  "All 
right,  Lord,  give  me  China,  that  will  be  to  me  a  heaven 
contrastively  with  Hell,  so  let  me  have  it."  There  God 
wonderfully  sanctified  him,  giving  him  the  glorious  bap- 
tism of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  fire.  He  was  at  that  time 
on  his  way  to  China. 

When  I  was  in  China  during  the  present  year  I  was 
anxious  to  hunt  him  up,  but  found  two  formidable  im- 
pediments in  the  way  of  evangelistic  work  in  that  country. 
The  greatest  difficulty  is  the  problem  of  conveyance,  as 
they  are  not  at  all  supplied  with  railroads.  In  India  I 
travelled  six  thousand  miles  preaching  night  and  day  for 
three  months,  but  in  China  this  is  not  possible.  Another 
difficulty  in  travelling  through  China  is  the  awful  state 
of  hostility  to  foreigners  which,  when  I  was  there,  really 
disqualified  us  for  evangelistic  work  in  that  country.  I 
was  anxious  to  meet  my  hoodlum  who  had  pelted  me 
with  the  eggs.  Oh,  how  I  wanted  to  see  him  and  give 
him  an  old-style  hug. 

Despite  the  rough  treatment  they  gave  me  at  that 
camp-meeting,  the  Lord  did  a  wonderful  work,  which 
abides  to  this  day.  Those  wicked  people  got  converted 
and  sanctified  and  established  a  permanent  holiness  camp- 
meeting,  which  is  still  continued.  They  have  often  called 
me  to  come  back  and  preach  for  them,  saying  they  would 
rather  see  me  than  any  other  man  in  the  world. 

My  Gospel  son,  Brother  Fred  Adams,  called  me  to 
I  his  camp-meeting  far  out  in  the  wild  west  of  the  North- 


356  Autobiography  op 

western  Texas  Conference.  As  it  was  eight  miles 
from  the  railroad  at  Jacksonville,  the  county-seat,  and 
the  distance  I  had  to  come  so  far,  they  could  have  no 
very  correct  idea  as  to  the  time  of  my  arrival.  There- 
fore all  the  people  on  the  camp-ground,  the  meetings  al- 
ready having  begun,  had  a  mutual  understanding  that 
everybody  going  to  town  should  watch  the  train,  make 
inquiry  and  catch  me  when  I  landed.  It  so  happened 
that  a  clever  German  brother  was  the  first  one  to  pick 
me  up  the  moment  I  stepped  off  the  car,  mount  me  on 
his  jolt  wagon  and  carry  me  to  the  camp-ground.  Of 
course  I  at  once  began  to  preach  to  him,  asking  him  if 
he  had  ever  been  born  again.  He  was  utterly  bewildered 
to  give  me  an  answer  and  said  he  had  never  heard  of, 
such  a  thing  before.  Verily  I  caught  him  in  surprise, 
like  Jesus  did  Nicodemus. 

So  I  proceeded  to  explain  it  to  him  and  assure  him 
that  he  must  receive  the  supernatural  birth  from  God 
out  of  Heaven,  wrought  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
whom  God  would  send  to  him  in  answer  to  prayer. 
I  told  him  the  Spirit  would  execute  that  mighty 
work  which  would  make  him  a  new  man,  and  bring 
him  into  a  new  world,  putting  a  new  spirit  within 
him,  giving  him  a  new  heart,  and  superinducing  a 
new  life  which  will  shine  and  shout  through  this  world 
and  brighter  eternally  in  the  world  to  come,  not  only 
making  this  life  all  glorious  sunshine,  but  giving  him 
Heaven  forever  when  the  storms  and  sorrows  of  this 
probationary  pilgrimage  shall  have  passed  away. 

While  I  was  thus  preaching  to  him  with  all  my  might, 
he  suddenly  broke  silence  to  notify  me  that  it  was  not 
worth  while  for  me  to  do  all  of  that  good  preaching  to 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  357 

him,  because  he  was  a  born  Roman  Catholic.  When  he 
was  about  to  start  to  America  he  said  the  priest  came 
to  see  him  and  bade  him  farewell,  saying  to  them,  "You 
are  now  about  to  sail  for  America,  that  far  off  land,  and 
if  you  ever  live  to  cross  the  great  Atlantic  Ocean,  which 
of  course  is  uncertain,  as  you  may  rest  assured  the  storms 
will  howl  and  the  tempests  rage,  seeking  to  wrap  you 
in  watery  winding  sheets,  you  say  you  are  going  to 
Texas  which  is  far  away  on  the  borders  of  Old  Mexico. 
When  you  reach  that  howling  wilderness  in  the  wild 
west,  you  will  not  be  apt  to  ever  see  another  Catholic 
priest.  Therefore  the  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  settle  the 
matter  once  for  all,  that  you  will  stick  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  come  what  may,  or  go  what  may.  I  assure  you 
that  it  is  your  only  safety.  If  you  stick  to  the  Catholic 
Church,  though  you  may  have  to  go  through  the  fires 
of  purgatory,  you  are  as  sure  of  Heaven  as  if  you  were  in 
^t.  It  is  only  a  question  of  time;  rest  assured  you  will 
get  there  in  the  blessed  finale  safe  and  sound.  There- 
fore all  of  you  (his  wife  and  sister)  come  and  kneel  down 
before  me  and  take  a  solemn  oath  that  you  will  live 
and  die  in  the  Holy  Catholic  Church." 

He  then  informed  me  that  they  took  that  oath,  and 
consequently  never  could  think  about  leaving  the  Catholic 
Church ;  so,  as  I  was  a  Methodist  preacher,  though  my 
preaching  was  really  good,  he  never  could  join  the  Meth- 
odist Church.  I  then  informed  him  that  he  was  utterly 
mistaken ;  that  I  did  not  want  him  to  leave  the  Catholic 
Church,  but  certainly  expected  him  to  live  and  die  in  it. 
But  I  told  him  that  if  he  did  not  get  born  from  above, 
as  the  Savior  told  Nicodemus  to  do,  the  devil  was  cer-* 
tain  to  take  him  to  Hell  when  he  died.     The  thing  for 


358  Autobiography  op 

every  good  Catholic  and  everybody  else  to  do  is  to  be 
sure  that  they  are  born  from  above.  When  I  succeeded 
in  convincing  him  that  I  had  no  purpose  whatever  to 
take  him  out  of  the  Catholic  Church,  but  was  perfectly 
willing  for  him  to  stay  in  it,  he  again  became  silent  and 
very  attentive,  actually  listening  spellbound,  as  he  did 
not  well  understand  English. 

Now,  while  the  wagon  ran  those  eight  miles  I  had 
nothing  to  do  but  preach  to  him.  Rest  assured  I  did 
my  best.  Before  we  reached  the  camp,  I  saw  that  the 
lightning  had  struck  him.  Before  we  dismounted  I  asked 
him  if  he  would  attend  all  of  the  meetings.  He  re- 
sponded in  the  affirmative.  I  found  him  all  the  time 
sitting  directly  in  front  of  me  and  giving  the  most  pro- 
found attention. 

Arriving  on  Thursday  I  spent  all  of  my  time  until 
Sunday  night  preaching  on  sanctification,  especially  in 
view  of  getting  our  forces  armed  and  equipped  for  the 
oncoming  campaign,  as  I  was  satisfied  that  a  great  mul- 
titude were  coming  from  all  parts  of  that  vast  wild  west. 
By  Sunday  we  had  many  tenters  on  the  ground  and  a 
vast  multitude  of  people  not  only  filling  the  great  audi- 
torium but  overflowing  it.  On  Sunday  night  I  preached 
directly  to  the  unconverted,  using  as  the  text,  Psa.  9:  17, 
"The  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  Hell  with  all  the  nations 
that  forget  God."  The  immense  audience  listened  as  if 
the  archangel  of  the  final  judgment  morn  had  descended 
and  was  sounding  his  mighty  trumpet  and  calling  the 
nations  to  the  flaming  Tribunal  of  the  omniscient  Judge 
of  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

As  that  was  my  first  message  that  T  had  directed  to 
the  unconverted,  I  took  plenty  of  time,  knowing  ihat  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  359 

great  majority  of  those  people  had  become  exceedingly 
wicked  in  that  wild  country.  While  dispensing  the  living 
Word,  I  warned  them  to  flee  the  wrath  to  come,  at  the» 
same  time  revealing  the  appalling  horrors  of  a  bottom- 
less Hell,  amid  penal  fires  unquenchable.  The  blessed 
Spirit  wonderfully  helped  me  to  portray  the  eternity  of 
woe  most  certainly  awaiting  the  unconverted. 

As  the  moments  fled  away  and  conviction  settled  down 
on  that  lost  multitude  like  a  nightmare  from  the  eternal 
world,  groans,  sighs,  heaves  and  sobs  became  distinctly 
audible.  The  tide  of  conviction  rising  higher  and  higher, 
they  began  to  weep  aloud  in  different  places  through  that 
great  auditorium.  The  scene  intensifies  as  conviction 
comes  like  an  incorrigible  paralysis  on  the  people  and 
they  begin  to  fall  from  their  seats,  losing  the  physical 
power  of  locomotion.  The  moans  increase  on  all  sides 
till  they  rise  like  the  roar  of  many  waters,  so  drowning 
my  voice  that  I  am  constrained  to  open  the  altar.  Quickly 
a  multitude  rush  to  it  and  crowd  it  to  overflowing.  Look- 
ing round  I  see  an  altar  out  in  the  auditorium  where  the 
people  have  fallen  and  seem  unable  to  get  away.  I  look 
in  the  other  direction  and  see  another  altar  and  the  dear 
saints  pressing  the  battle.  In  still  a  third  direction  I 
see  another  altar,  and  oh,  how  the  Christians  are  toiling 
to  lead  the  penitents  to  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world !  They  are  actually  peregrin- 
ating the  crowd  like  the  resurrection  angels,  when  the 
Lord  shall  descend  to  catch  away  His  waiting  Bride. 

The  first  one  to  rush  to  the  altar  when  I  gave  the  in- 
vitation was  that  German  who  had  carried  me  to  the 
camp.  Oh,  how  he  prayed  to  God,  for  Christ's  sake,  to 
forgive  his  sins  and  give  him  a  new  heart.     About  ten 


360  Autobiography  o* 

o'clock  he  came  through  bright  as  a  meridian  sunburst 
and  shouting  all  over  the  tabernacle.  Forgetting  that  he 
was  in  an  English-speaking  audience,  he  fell  to  exhorting 
in  German  and  singing  songs. 

Wonderful  was  the  work  of  the  Lord  that  memorable 
Sunday  night,  when  many  passed  out  of  darkness  into 
light,  while  others  were  fording  the  Jordan  and  enter- 
ing Beulah  Land. 

At  eleven  o'clock  I  proceeded  to  dismiss  the  congre- 
gation although  I  knew  many  would  linger  until  they 
found  the  Lord.  When  I  was  about  tp  pronounce  the 
benediction,  this  joyful,  newly-born  German  begged  me 
most  importunately  not  to  dismiss,  saying,  "You  see  I 
have  got  it,  but  here  are  my  wife  and  sister  at  the  altar 
and  I  want  you  to  hold  on  till  they  get  it."  I  told  him 
to  rest  easy  for  God  would  surely  give  it  to  them,  and' 
so  He  did  in  His  own  good  time.  The  meeting  proved 
a  glorious  victory;  before  it  was  over  this  German  had 
not  only  been  converted,  but  sanctified.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  encampment,  when  Brother  Adams  invited 
people  to  join  the  Church,  this  German,  accompanied 
by  his  wife  and  sister,  was  among  the  first,  they  having 
forgotten  all  about  the  oath  sworn  in  Germany  at  the 
knee  of  the  priest,  solemnly  obligating  themselves  to 
stick  to  the  Catholic  Church  and  die  in  it. 

This  illustrates  the  great  mistake  there  is  in  fighting 
churches.  That  is  not  our  business.  We  have  all  we 
can  do  to  fill  our  regular  contract  to  fight  the  devil  and 
sin.  Holiness  people  make  two  mistakes — they  fight 
churches  instead  of  devils,  and  doctors  instead  of  dis- 
eases. Let  us  take  warning  and  make  these  mistakes 
no  more.    I  had  to  convince  that  German  that  I  had  no 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  361 

fight  with  his  Church,  but  only  wanted  his  soul  saved. 
A  fight  with  his  Church  would  simply  have  aroused  his 
carnality  in  its  defense.  A  similar  mistake  is  made  in 
fighting  lodgery.  The  thing  for  us  to  do  is  to  preach 
Jesus  and  tell  people  how  to  get  saved.  You  have 
nothing  to  do  but  get  them  saved  to  the  uttermost,  i.  e., 
sanctified  wholly,  and  lodgery,  along  with  sectarianism, 
dies  a  natural  death.  If  you  want  to  kill,  always  shoot 
at  the  heart.  Otherwise  you  may  inflict  flesh  wounds 
and  make  a  great  show  with  flowing  blood,  and  yet  your 
enemy  convalesce  and  soon  meet  you  again  in  battle 
array. 


Chapter  XI. 

MATURITY. 

In  the  Mosaic  dispensation  thirty  was  the  majority 
and  fifty  maturity.  In  writing  up  my  biography  I  have 
dated  my  young  manhood  from  my  sanctification  in  1868, 
as  it  took  that  experience  to  bring  into  availability  the 
gifts  which  God  had  conferred  in  creation  but  which 
still  remained  latent  in  my  constitution,  myself  ignorant 
of  their  existence.  Man  is  a  trinity  consisting  of  body, 
soul  and  spirit.  In  this  probationary  existence  the  phy- 
sical first  predominates.  It  was  so  in  my  life  as  well 
as  yours.  It  took  the  new  birth  to  supersede  the  body 
in  the  pre-eminence  of  the  soul.  While,  in  the  good 
providence  of  God,  and  through  the  hallowed  experience 
of  a  godly  home,  a  preaching  father  and  a  Christian 
mother,  God  fortified  me  against  the  seductive  vices  and 
bewitching  follies  universally  incident  to  childhood  and 
youth,  so  that  I  never  went  into  them,  and  by  His  provi- 
dence and  grace  I  retained  from  the  cradle  an  unimpeach- 
able moral  character,  my  principal  transgressions  being 
selfward  through  sheer  ignorance  of  hygenical  laws ;  yet 
during  my  juvenile  life,  antecedently  to  my  conversion 
at  the  age  of  sixteen,  while  the  physical  predominated 
over  the  intellectual  and  spiritual,  I  delighted  in  and  ex- 
celled all  of  my  comrades  in  the  innocent  recreations  of 
foot  racing,  wrestling,  ball  playing  and  everything  else 

362 


Kkv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  363 

which  did  not  conflict  with  a  good  conscience,  illumin- 
ated by  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God.  My  conversion 
forever  superseded  all  of  these  physical  sports,  yea,  they 
at  once  went  into  total  eclipse  and  I  left  them  forever. 
Not  that  I  was  convicted  that  they  were  sinful,  but  I 
had  received  something  so  much  better  that  I  no  longer 
had  any  appreciation  of  them.  Thus  in  my  pilgrimage 
I  travelled  on  another  long  stadium  in  advance  of  them, 
leaving  them  utterly  out  of  sight. 

The  glorious  experience  of  regeneration  thus  having 
brought  the  physical  into  a  total  eclipse,  at  the  same 
time  it  brought  the  intellectual  into  indisputable  and  ir- 
reversible pre-eminence.  Then  I  moved  out  with  all  my 
might  into  the  prosecution  of  my  collegiate  education, 
not  only  pursuing  but  preferring  the  hardest  studies  and 
actually  delighting  in  the  most  arduous  intellectual 
labour,  i.  e.,  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  the  higher 
mathematics  and  the  natural  sciences.  In  the  providence 
of  God,  nineteen  years  elapsed  during  my  regenerated 
experience,  and  during  all  of  that  time  I  was  a  most 
assiduous  student. 

Graduating  from  college  at  the  expiration  of  the  tenth 
year  of  that  period,  I  at  once  became  president  of  a 
college  in  which,  with  my  assistant  teacher,  I  taught  the 
whole  classical  curriculum.  Thus  I  was  given  the  most 
athletic  intellectual  gymnasium  possible. 

When  the  Lord  sanctified  me  at  the  age  of  thirty-five, 
He  brought  the  spiritual  into  decisive  pre-eminence,  thus 
enthroning  the  spirit,  dominant  in  my  being,  and  throw- 
ing the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  physical  into  eclipse. 
Then  I  became  like  John  Wesley,  homo  unius  libri,  a 
man  of  one  book,  and  of  course  that  Book  was  the  Bible. 


364  Autobiography  of 

During  the  preceding  nineteen  years  I  had  ransacked  all 
the  world  for  books  and  gathered  up  a  library  at  the 
cost  of  a  thousand  dollars.  After  I  passed  this  great 
and  decisive  epoch  in  my  experience,  I  immediately  began, 
to  give  away  my  library,  because  I  no  longer  had  time 
to  utilize  those  great  volumes  which  I  had  hitherto  so 
highly  esteemed.  Therefore  during  the  last  thirty-eight 
years  my  time  has  been  occupied  in  the  spiritual  realm, 
studying  the  deep  things  of  God,  profoundly  realizing 
that  I  know  nothing  but  what  God  has  revealed  to  me 
in  the  realm  of  His  providence,  Word,  and  Spirit.  I 
am  infinitely  delighted  sitting  like  a  little  child  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus.  Meanwhile  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Author  of  the  precious  Word,  is  revealing  to  my  spirit 
the  deep  things  of  God  and  the  wonderful  things  of  His 
kingdom,  while  the  constant  cry  of  my  heart  goes  up, 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee." 

"To  Thee  and  Thee  alone 
The  angels  owe  their  bliss ; 
Thoy  circle  round  the  blazing  throne, 
And  dwell  where  Jesus  is. 

"Thou  art  the  sea  of  love, 

Where  all  my  pleasures  roll ; 
The  circle  where  my  passions  move, 
And  center  of  my  soul. 

"Not  all  the  harps  above 

Can  make  a  heavenly  place, 
If  God  His  residence  remove, 
Or  but  conceal  His  face. 

"To  Thee  my  spirits  fly 
With   infinite  desire, 
And  yet  how  far  from  Thee  I  lie! 
O  Jesus,  raise  me  higher!". 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  365 

Section  One. 
The  Commentaries. 

I  must  mention  two  whom  God  decisively  used  to  de- 
velop a  new  epoch  in  my  life.  The  one  is  Rev.  M.  W. 
Knapp,  and  the  other  Brother  J.  L.  Hunton,  a  preaching 
layman  of  Hillsboro,  Texas,  and  now  at  Orange,  Cali- 
fornia. I  must  ever  glorify  God  for  using  Brother 
Knapp  to  launch  me  into  authorship  and  Brother  Hunton 
to  cut  me  loose  from  my  native  land  and  give  to  me  the 
Old  World  in  addition  to  the  New  for  my  field  of  labor.  I 
do  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  these  brethren  as  God's 
humble  instruments  in  the  development  of  this  great  and 
interesting  epoch  in  my  life,  which  I  can  never  pay. 

I  had  read  the  writings  of  Brother  Knapp  and  he 
had  read  mine  and  we  had  corresponded,  but  never  met 
till  he  migrated  to  Cincinnati  in  1892,  then  of  course  we 
had  him  come  over  into  Kentucky  to  preach  for  us  in 
our  Holiness  Convention,  when  I,  for  the  first  time, 
looked  into  his  inspiring  face.  I  was  a  little  surprised 
to  find  him  twenty  years  my  junior,  as  his  trenchant 
pen  had  impressed  me  with  his  seniority. 

I  had  written  my  "Baptism"  "Sanctffication,"  "Chris- 
tian Perfection,"  "Victory"  and  "Holiness  or  Hell,"  all 
of  which  had  received  a  wonderful  circulation  and  ap- 
preciation, infinitely  beyond  my  anticipation,  and  God  had 
used  them  as  pioneers  of  the  Movement,  especially 
throughout  the  great  South,  whither  its  coming  was  a 
score  of  years  more  tardy  than  in  the  vast  North.  Those 
books  are  all  distinguished  for  their  brevity,  perspicuity, 
vivacity  and  Biblical  orthodoxy;  meanwhile  the  didactic 
phase  of  them  is  of  infinite  value  to  the  Biblical  student, 


366  Autobiography  of 

at  they  teach  the  great  truths  of  regeneration  and  entire 
sanctification,  so  tersely,  clearly,  experimentally  and 
'demonstratively  that  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  has  used 
them  in  leading  multitudes  into  the  happy  experience  of 
full  salvation.  Besides,  they  are  all  pre-eminently  char- 
acteristic of  multum  in  parvo,  much  in  little,  and  con- 
sequently are  well  adapted  to  the  busy  millions  of  Chris- 
tians who  are  hungry  for  this  delectable  full  salvation 
and,  like  myself,  are  seeking  it  blindly,  as  I  did  for  nine- 
teen years  because  I  did  not  know  how  to  get  it.  If 
either  of  the  above  books  had  reached  me  I  would  have 
entered  Beulah  Land  in  my  blooming  youth,  instead  of 
waiting  till  life's  meridian.  Brother  Knapp  had  read  and 
circulated  all  of  those  books.  I  simply  wrote  them  in 
order  that  they  might  help  me  preach  this  great  salva- 
tion and  reach  multitudes  whom  I  would  never  have  the 
opportunity  to  meet  face  to  face  and  dispense  the  living 
Word. 

I  also  wrote  them  especially  to  leave  with  the  people 
to  whom  God,  in  His  providence,  had  permitted  me  to 
preach  the  Gospel,  in  order  to  establish  them  in  the  faith, 
so  that  their  experiences  would  not  evanesce  through  the 
chicanery  of  the  intriguing  foe.  I  have  seen  wonderful 
fruitfulness  which,  in  the  good  providence  of  God,  has 
supervened  through  the  media  of  these  straight,  clear, 
scriptural  and  irrefutable  presentations  of  God's  blessed, 
saving  truth,  revelatory  of  the  glorious  privileges  and 
invaluable  inheritance  which  He  hath  bequeathed  to  His 
humble,  faithful  and  teachable  children. 

The  holiness  people  had  been  exceedingly  clamorous 
a  full  dozen  years  for  me  to  write  commentaries  ex- 
pository of  the  New  Testament.     This  conception  had 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  367 

originated  from  my  constant  habit  of  teaching  the  Scrip- 
tures during  my  evangelistic  meetings,  utilizing  the  day 
time  in  the  instruction  of  the  Lord's  people  and  preach- 
ing in  connection  with  my  evangelistic  meetings  at  night. 
For  the  last  thirty  years  I  have  been  constantly  using 
the  inspired  Greek  in  my  ministry,  reading  and  expound- 
ing it  freely  in  the  Bible  School  department  of  the  meet- 
ings which  God  has  permitted  me  to  hold  in  my  exten- 
sive peregrinations.  This  clamor  for  the  Commentaries 
on  the  part  of  the  holiness  people  had  become  general 
and  was  growing  more  and  more  importunate.  Through 
shrinking  from  the  weighty  responsibility,  I  continued 
to  postpone  the  arduous  work,  yet  I  dared  not  refuse 
lest  I  grieve  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  I  had  quite  a  credulity 
for  the  trite  maxim,  "Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,"  the  voice 
of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God.  This  maxim  is  reliable 
as  a  rule,  when  they  are  God's  people,  but  of  course 
utterly  unreliable  in  case  of  Satan's  people. 

While  others  had  done  their  best  to  shove  me  into 
the  work  of  writing  commentaries,  somehow  they  had 
never  succeeded.  Though  Brother  Knapp  in  his  won- 
derful suaviter  in  modo,  sweetness  in  manner,  reminded 
me  of  an  angel  instead  of  a  man,  yet  he  had  a  power 
over  the  human  will  which  was  absolutely  indescribable 
and  apparently  irresistible.  When  he  undertook  to  put 
me  out  in  this  great  work,  I  realized  that  I  had  come  in 
contact  with  an  irresistible  force.  Consequently  I  ac- 
quiesced without  a  murmur,  promising  him  to  begin  the 
work  so  soon  as  I  could  make  a  tour  in  the  Holy  Land, 
recognizing  the  ostensible  fact  that  the  Land  and  the 
Book  are  so  intimately  associated  that  no  one  is  pre- 
pared to  write  up  the  latter  without  a  personal  acquain- 


368  Autobiography   op 

tance  with  the  former.  Therefore  I  was  at  a  standstill, 
committed  to  begin  the  Commentaries  so  soon  as  I  could 
make  that  tour. 

While  thus  hesitating  to  enter  upon  the  work,  for  the 
above  reasons,  I  was  delivering  a  Bible  reading  to  an 
audience  of  about  five  hundred  at  8  A.  M.  during  Waco,- 
Texas,  Camp-meeting,  when  a  man  roared  out  from  the 
audience,  "Why  do  you  not  write  those  Commentaries? 
I  am  afraid  you  will  die  and  we  will  never  get  them." 
I  responded,  "I  am  waiting  to  make  a  tour  through  the 
Holy  Land,  after  which  I  am  under  promise  to  begin  at 
once."  Then  he  said,  "Why  don't  you  go?"  My  answer 
was  simple  and  easy — "I  have  not  the  money."  Resum- 
ing the  Greek  lesson,  I  proceeded,  thinking  no  more 
about  it. 

When  the  hour  closed  and  we  adjourned  for  the  next 
service,  Brother  J.  S.  Hun  ton  came  to  me  and  said, 
"Brother  Godbey,  I  have  fifteen  hundred  dollars  lying 
in  the  bank  which  I  do  not  especially  need,  and  the  Lord 
tells  me  to  send  you  to  the  Holy  Land."  Of  course  you 
see  God,  in  His  providence,  raised  up  that  noble  saint 
to  cut  the  gordian  knot  and  send  me  to  that  far  off  land, 
which  I  had  all  my  life  longed  to  see,  and  to  put  my  un- 
worthy feet  down  on  the  very  ground  hallowed  by  the 
tread  of  my  condescending  Lord,  who  came  all  the  way 
from  Heaven  and  sojourned  there  thirty-three  years, 
that  He  might  bleed  and  die  for  me.  Therefore  God 
used  Brother  Hunton  in  the  enlargement  of  my  field  of 
labor,  which  hitherto  had  been  confined  to  this  continent. 
Thus  cut  loose  from  beloved  America,  He  has  per- 
mitted me  to  prosecute  the  third  tour  in  the  Old  World, 
preaching    the    Gospel    in    Europe,    Asia,    Africa,    and 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M:  369 

Oceania.  While  I  never  can  repay  Brother  Hunton  the 
debt  of  gratitude  I  owe  him  for  thus  enlarging  my  evan- 
gelistic field,  and  giving  me  the  Old  in  addition  to  the 
New  World,  my  one  regret  is  that  this  notable  epoch  in 
my  history  did  not  supervene  twenty  years  sooner,  as 
in  that  case  I  might  have  preached  so  much  in  the  great 
heathen  fields  which  girdle  the  globe.  With  the  ac- 
quaintance I  have  now  in  the  other  grand  divisions  of 
the  earth,  if  I  were  young  enough  I  would  continue  my 
peregrinations  in  these  heathen  lands  so  long  as  I  had 
the  physical  ability.  But  as  I  am  now  seventy-three 
(1906),  with  deep  regret  that  I  did  not  get  an  earlier 
start,  I  have  to  accept  the  situation  and  content  myself 
to  encourage  the  work  of  pagan  evangelization  by  my 
prayers,  speech  and  pen  and  my  limited  financial  ability, 
during  the  little  time  I  shall  abide  in  this  tabernacle. 

Having,  through  the  generosity  of  Brother  Hunton, 
visited  the  Holy  Land,  I  at  once  entered  upon  the  great 
and  arduous  work  of  writing  the  Commentaries.  I  never 
became  a  literary  recluse,  in  order  to  do  any  of  my 
writing.  You  who  read  them  will  certify  me  that  they 
all  smell  of  gunpowder,  having  been  born  amid  the 
tempest  of  war  and  the  thunder  of  battle.  They  have 
been  written  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  whither- 
soever He  has  led  me  in  my  toiling  peregrinations.  I 
constantly  made  it  a  rule  to  dictate  to  an  amanuensis  in 
the  morning,  teach  the  Bible  in  the  afternoon,  and  preach 
in  the  evangelistic  meetings  at  night.  I  am  so  thankful 
to  God  that  He  has  let  me  do  so  much  work  for  Him, 
which  certainly  is  the  highest  privilege  this  side  of 
Heaven.     The  Commentaries   written   by  your  humble 


J70  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OP 

servant  difTor  widely  from  all  their  predecessors  in  the 
following  respects. 

(i.)  They  are  rigidly  exegetical,  i.  e.,  they  explain  the 
precious  Word  so  plainly  that  the  reader  understands 
it  so  clearly  that  he  can  explain  it  to  others. 

(2.)  They  are  lucidly  experimental,  i.  e.,  bearing  con- 
stantly on  Christian  experience,  which  is  so  pre-eminently 
important.  If  you  would  pass  through  the  pearly  gates, 
che  Bible  must  go  through  your  heart  and  shine  out  in 
your  life.  Our  preaching  should  be  constantly,  earnestly 
md  explicitly  experimental,  as  otherwise  it  is  intangible, 
impracticable  and  of  no  substantial  availability.  The 
whole  Bible  is  rigidly  experimental  and  our  preaching 
must  be  its  veritable  fac-simile.  These  Commentaries 
are  the  very  thing  to  feed  your  own  soul  and  make  you 
he  efficient  dispenser  of  soul  pabulum  to  others. 

(3.)  They  are  also  strictly  practical,  bringing  the  pre- 
cious and  infallible  Word  into  constant  availability  so  we 
can  utilize  its  heavenly  wisdom  in  our  daily  living.  The 
Bible  is  really  every  man's  guide-book,  the  infallible 
director  of  the  pilgrim  prosecuting  his  toiling  march 
along  the  King's  highway  of  holiness  in  this  world  of 
sin  and  sorrow,  to  the  glorious  and  eternal  rest  which 
awaits  the  faithful  probationer  beyond  the  range  of 
tempest  and  sorrow  "where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 

"Oh  !  'tis  sweet  to  think,  hereafter 

When  the  spirit  leaves  this  sphere, 
Love  with  deathless  wings  shall  waft  her, 
To  those  she  long  hath  mourned  for  here. 

"Hearts  from  which  'twas  death  to  sever, 
Eyes  this  world  can  ne'er  restore, 
There  as  warm,  as  bright  as  ever. 
Shall  greet  us  and  be  lost  no  more." 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  371 

(4.)  They  are  not  critical.  I  have  kept  close  com- 
pany with  all  of  the  prominent  critics  of  Christendom 
from  the  Apostolic  Fathers  down  to  the  present,  who  day 
and  night,  like  my  predecessors,  have  written  critically, 
but  the  Lord  did  not  so  lead  me.  He  used  some  of  my 
scholarly  holiness  brethren  to  advise  me  to  leave  out 
the  critical  phase,  which  is  the  most  prominent  in  all  of 
the  older  commentaries.  They  start  out  and  tell  you 
what  this  critic  says,  what  another  says,  etc.  The  reader 
goes  ahead  and  reads  the  expositions  of  the  different 
critics,  gets  bewildered,  and  actually  reaches  nothing 
tangible  and  utilizable.  These  Commentaries,  instead 
of  perplexing  you  with  criticisms,  explain  the  Word  in 
a  plain  style  so  that  you  can  feed  on  it  in  your  own  soul 
and  dispense  it  to  the  hungry  around  you. 

(5.)  They  are  non-sectarian.  I  do  not  believe  any 
really  candid  person  can  read  them  and  locate  the  author 
with  any  of  the  sects  or  denominations.  Where  does  the 
non-sectarian  and  undenominational  part  come  in?  From 
the  simple  fact  that  the  Bible  is  positively  free  from  sec- 
tarianism and  denominationality.  Of  course  we  have 
all  come  into  the  world  and  grown  up  under  some  sec- 
tarian influences,  but  it  is  a  conceded  fact  that  real  sanc- 
tification  saves  us  from  carnality  in  all  its  forms  and 
phases,  and  that  includes  sectarianism. 

(6.)  They  are  pre-eminently  adapted  to  all  who  feel 
called  of  God  directly  or  indirectly  to  dispense  the  glor- 
ious Gospel  of  His  once  humiliated  but  now  glorified 
Son.  That  Son  is  now  enthroned  at  His  right  hand, 
coronated,  sceptred  and  interceding  for  a  lost  world, 
which  He,  in  His  wonderful  condescending  mercy,  by 
His  vicarious   substitutionary   atonement   redeemed   for- 


372  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OP 

ever  from  sin,  death  and  Hell,  having  so  triumphantly 
conquered  all  of  our  enemies  as  to  eternally  preclude 
the  faintest  apology  for  the  damnation  of  a  solitary  soul. 
Most  transcendently  important,  interesting  and  delight- 
ful is  the  glorious  privilege  of  dispensing  this  message 
of  life  and  salvation  to  the  lost  millions  now  thronging 
the  broad  and  frequented  road  down  to  a  devil's  Hell. 
They  are  manipulated,  deluded,  hoaxed  and  bamboozled 
by  millions  of  excarnate  demons  thronging  the  air  and 
incarnate  devils,  in  the  form  of  counterfeit  preachers 
and  false  prophets,  literally  inundating  every  land  and 
clime  in  these  latter  days  of  the  Pentecostal  dispensation. 
This  world  is  now  flooded  with  a  population  of  sixteen 
hundred  millions  of  immortal  souls,  one  thousand  mil- 
lions of  whom  are  sitting  in  heathen  darkness,  and  en- 
veloped in  the  thralldom  of  death.  Human  longevity 
has  been  cut  down  from  a  thousand  years  in  the  ante- 
diluvian ages  and  a  hundred  years  in  the  postdiluvian, 
to  the  fleeting  span  of  only  twenty-four  in  India  and 
but  little  more  in  other  heathen  lands.  Thus  we  have 
now  a  thousand  incentives  playing  on  every  intelligently 
and  victoriously  saved  soul,  to  rally  to  the  rescue  of  his 
perishing  comrades,  who  by  millions  on  all  sides  are 
precipitating  themselves  into  Hell  at  race  horse  speed. 
Since  the  glorious  Gospel,  with  which  the  blessed  Bible 
is  flooded  from  Alpha  to  Omega,  is  God's  predestinated 
medium  of  rescue  for  every  fallen  son  and  daughter  of 
Adam's  ruined  race,  we  are  no  longer  excusable  for 
folding  our  arms  and  sitting  in  the  easy  chair  of  carnal 
security,  while  we  sing,  "I  am  bound  for  the  Promised 
Land."  It  is  high  time  that  we  all  arise,  take  our  Gospel 
trumpet  and  begin  to  blow  the  shrill  bugle  blasts  which 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  373 

hush  the  seraphim  and  cherubim  to  listen  to  the  sweetest 
music  that  ever  thrilled  immortal  ears,  while  contem- 
plative angels  bending  over  the  heavenly  battlements 
stoop  to  listen  to  the  welcome  notes  of  Gospel  grace 
(1  Peter  1 :  12).  And  here  on  earth  the  old,  the  young, 
the  great,  the  small,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  cultured 
and  the  rustic,  stand  and  tell  the  lost  multitudes  about 
the  dying  Saviour  and  the  beautiful  home  in  Heaven 
He  has  purchased  for  the  homeless  millions.  Oh,  how 
they  will  bless  you  through  all  eternity,  while  they  tell 
the  angels  that  God  used  you  as  an  humble  instrument 
to  "pluck  them  as  brands  from  the  eternal  burning." 

In  this  greatest  soul  harvest  the  ages  have  ever  known, 
is  it  possible  you  are  going  to  lie  supine?  Arise,  arise, 
oh,  sluggard,  shake  off  thy  slumbers  and  awake  to  an 
opportunity  to  which  the  angels  would  gladly  speed  their 
flight,  vacating  Heaven  and  leaving  their  golden  harps, 
ethereal  paeans  and  celestial  trumpets,  to  take  your  place 
in  the  slums  and  preach  this  delectable  Gospel  and  rescue 
the  perishing  multitudes,  whom  Jesus  has  redeemed  with 
His  own  precious  blood.  Will  you  not  hasten  to  the 
rescue,  and  lend  a  helping  hand  lest  some  Oriental  coolie 
in  the  Judgment  Day  shall  take  your  crown? 

(7.)  Those  Commentaries  are  alone  in  the  fact  that 
they  have  been  written  exegetically,  experimentally  and 
practically,  whereas  their  predecessors  are  all  written 
critically,  e.  g.,  Clark,  Ue  prince  of  commentators,  starts 
off  on  an  exegesis  basis,  instead  of  telling  you  what  it 
means  in  direct,  plain  terms,  so  you  will  understand  it 
and  can  intelligently  dispense  it  to  others.  He  proceeds 
to  tell  you  what  the  critics  say  about  it,  quoting  the  ex- 
position of  this  one,  that  one  and  the  other,  till  he  gets 


374  Autobiography  of 

you  bewildered  among  the  critics  and  there  leaves  you 
incompetent  to  settle  on  any  clear  exegesis  of  the  pas- 
sage. You  really  have  no  time  to  spend  in  learning 
criticism,  which  I  could  have  given  yon,  but  I  did  not 
feel  that  the  Lord  wanted  me  to  perplex  your  mind  in 
that  way.  I  felt  led  by  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit,  the  in- 
fallible Author  of  this  precious  message  of  life  and  god- 
liness, in  a  plain,  simple  way  to  give  you  the  explanation 
which  you  need  to  feed  your  own  soul  and  dispense  truth 
to  the  perishing  millions  who  throng  your  pathway 
through  this  world  of  sin,  sorrow,  wretchedness,  dis- 
appointment and  wreckage  of  human  hopes  and  aspir- 
ations. 

All  the  commentaries  by  my  predecessors  were  written 
for  the  learned  clergy.  The  Lord  told  me  to  write  mine 
for  the  rank  and  file  of  His  dear  people,  who  had  never 
enjoyed  the  opportunity  of  a  collegiate  education,  but 
who  have  much  to  do  in  winning  souls,  in  view  of  the 
illimitable  extent  of  the  harvest  enveloping  the  globe 
with  its  crowded  fields  white  for  the  sickle.  There  is  a 
paucity  of  reapers,  inadequate  to  the  glorious  work  of 
garnering  the  golden  grain  which  is  wasting  by  whole- 
sale, the  antipodian  pagans  having  but  one  missionary  to 
every  million  souls  or  more.  Therefore  it  is  actually 
homocidal  longer  to  depend  on  the  collegiate  clergy  to 
evangelize  the  world.  We  just  have  to  use  aides  from 
the  people,  bless  them  in  their  labours  of  love  and  go  off 
and  leave  them. 

John  Wesley's  great  holiness  movement  solved  the 
problem  of  saving  the  world  not  through  the  classical 
clergy,  but  the  uncultured  laity.  For  this  grand  achieve- 
ment, i.  e.,  the  evangelization  of  the  world  by  the  rank 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  375 

and  file  of  God's  faithful  people,  T  wrote  those  Com- 
mentaries which  any  men  and  women  who  have  never 
seen  the  inside  of  a  college,  but  who  have  an  ordinary 
English  education,  can  read,  and  thus  qualify  themselves 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  illiterate  millions  who  crowd 
this  Babel  world.  These  lay  preachers  do  better  work 
and  we  find  their  humble  labors  more  fruitful  of  souls 
than  that  of  the  theologians,  from  the  ostensible  fact  that 
their  language  is  more  easily  understood  by  the  ignorant 
denizens  of  slumdom,  whom  the  learned  preachers 
habitually  overshoot,  i.  e.,  make  the  sad  mistake  of  put- 
ting the  fodder  too  high  for  the  sheep,  so  that  they  starve 
to  death  with  an  abundance  of  food  in  full  view, — a 
torture  intolerable  to  contemplate.  God  is  wonderfully 
using  these  books.  They  are  going  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  already  being  in  current  use  in  all  of  the  great 
mission  fields  which  envelop  the  dark  Orient. 

(8.)  Not  only  do  the  dear  people  need  plain  and  in- 
telligent explanations  of  the  precious  Word,  so  that  they 
can  instruct  others,  but  they  need  fortification  against 
a  thousand  innocent  mistakes,  into  which  they  will  cer- 
tainly drift  if  they  undertake  to  preach  the  Gospel  with- 
out a  simple,  lucid  explanation  which  they  will  be  enabled 
to  understand  experimentally  and  practically.  This  is 
necessary  so  that  they  may  realize  in  their  own  minds 
the  mastery  of  the  situation  which  "is  indispensably  es- 
sential to  that  independence  of  thought  and  utterance 
which  is  the  concomitant  of  the  glorious  spiritual  free- 
dom everywhere  necessary  to  the  successful  enforce- 
ment of  the  message  enunciated. 

Our  Savior  inaugurated  His  Gospel  with  a  three  years' 
course  in   a  Bible   School,    which   was  indispensable   to 


376  Autobiography  or 

qualify  His  disciples  for  the  great  and  respomible  work 
of  launching  the  Gospel  Church.  For  this  reason  lie 
had  to  prolong  His  ministry  three  whole  years,  mean- 
while He  was  a  constant  fugitive  for  His  life,  incessantly 
flying  from  His  enemies,  who  were  thirsting  for  His 
blood  and  plotting  to  kill  Him,  or  from  His  friends 
who  were  enthusiastic  to  crown  Him  King,  in  which 
case  the  Romans  would  have  killed  Him  as  a  rival 
of  Caesar.  When  Jesus  wanted  preachers  He  chose 
"unlearned  and  ignorant  men,"  (Acts  4:12).  They 
were  stalwart  men,  though,  hardened  by  the  rough 
and  tumble  life  of  Galilean  fishermen,  accustomed  to  toil 
all  night  as  the  better  time  to  catch  fish  and  take  chances 
to  snatch  up  a  little  sleep  on  the  sand  during  the  day  at 
intervals  of  domestic  labor,  and  then  be  ready  for  the 
ensuing  night  of  sleepless  toil.  He  has  never  changed 
His  economy.  He  is  still  calling  the  illiterate  millions 
to  go  and  tell  their  lost  contemporaries  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation,  rich,  sweet,  full  and  free. 

When  He  wanted  a  teacher,  He  put  His  hand  on  Paul, 
the  greatest  scholar  in  the  world  and  the  most  competent 
exegete  of  the  glorious  plan  of  salvation.  Though  His 
greatest  enemy,  He  had  no  trouble  to  put  him  just  where 
He  wanted  him  and  use  him  to  reveal  the  major  part  of 
the  New  Testament,  at  the  same  time  so  ably  and  lucidly 
expounding  the  deep  things  of  God  as  to  make  him  a 
glorious  sunburst  on  the  precious,  revealed  Word,  light- 
ing it  up  to  all  coming  generations. 

This  grand  army  of  evangelists,  whom  God  is  raising 
up  in  every  nation  under  Heaven,  has  no  time  to  per- 
plex their  minds  with  scholastic  theologies.  They  want 
the  simple  nonsectarian  explanation  of  the  Bible  so  that 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  377 

they  can  preach  it  to  others.  The  theologians  have  even 
muddled  the  very  word  "preach,"  leading-  the  popular 
mind  to  the  conclusion  that  it  means  to  study  hard,  man- 
ufacture a  sermon  mechanically  and  roar  it  out  to  the 
people  with  certain  rhetorical  intonations,  inflections  and 
nicely  rounded  cadences.  The  word  enaggells,  from  en, 
good,  and  oggells,  to  proclaim,  simply  means  to  tell  the 
good  news  in  the  plainest  and  most  simple  phraseology, 
so  that  people  will  be  sure  to  understand  it,  because  it 
is  verily  to  them  the  message  of  life  and  salvation.  In 
these  Commentaries  you  not  only  have  the  truth  ex- 
plained just  as  you  would  want  to  preach  it  to  the  people, 
but  you  are  constantly  fortified  against  the  dangerous 
errors  which  undermine  the  glorious  plan  of  salvation, 
actually  vitiating  and  even  ignoring  the  vicarious  sub- 
stitutionary atonement  which  our  Lord  made  for  the  re- 
demption of  the  whole  world,  which  is  to  be  received 
and  appropriated  by  simple  faith.  These  pestilential 
heresies,  which  are  freighted  with  Hell's  heaviest 
artillery,  are  directed  against!  the  very  vital  truth  of 
the  Gospel,  i.  c,  the  glorious  redemption  wrought  by  the 
Son  of  God  with  His  own  dying  agonies  and  flowing 
blood,  crimsoning  the  cruel  cross  of  Calvary,  and  the 
great  and  mighty  works  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  conviction, 
regeneration,  sanctification  and  glorification.  These 
heresies  are  not  only  boldly  proclaimed  from  pulpits, 
but  are  advocated  in  great  volumes  of  learned  books, 
actually  undermining  the  stupendous  work  of  the  Son 
and  Spirit  and  bringing  back  the  paganistic  idea  of  God 
in  nature,  in  contradistinction  to  the  stupendous  revealed 
truths  of  God  in  grace,  the  climactic  glory  of  Biblical 
revelation  in  all  of  its  transcendent  beauties  and  resplend- 


37%  Autobiography   of 

ent  victories,  flashing  over  the  inspired  pages  from  the 
Alpha  of  Genesis  to  the  Omega  of  Revelation.  This 
great  double  heresy  against  the  Son  and  Spirit,  so  ably 
and  extensively  propagated  by  Unitarians  in  the  East 
and  Campbellites  in  the  West,  has  infected  the  American 
atmosphere  with  a  fatal  soul-poison  which  we  find  clan- 
destinely creeping  in  on  all  sides,  like  the  vampire  at 
midnight  gently  fanning  his  victim  with  his  wings,  thus 
lulling  him  into  still  profounder  slumber  while  he  sucks 
the  life  blood  away.  These  myriads  of  lay  preachers 
must  have  straight,  clear,  orthodox  teaching  in  order  to 
qualify  them  to  understand  the  Word  in  its  simplicity, 
beauty,  force  and  victory,  at  the  same  time  heroically 
fortifying  them  against  Satan's  heresies,  which  are 
sweeping  over  every  land  like  the  withering  sirocco  over 
Lybia's  burning  marl,  blighting  and  blasting  every  green 
herb  and  blooming  flower.  These  Commentaries  are  a 
God-send  to  the  millions  who  have  no  facilities  of  clas- 
sical education,  and  whom  nevertheless  God  is  calling 
and  ready  to  honor  their  ministry  with  blood-bought 
souls,  already  caught  in  Satan's  Hell-traps  and  on  the 
brink  of  irretrievable  woe,  lingering  and  waiting  for 
"the  beautiful  feet"  swiftly  running  with  the  evangelistic 
message  of  life  eternal  and  salvation  non-forfeitable. 

Section  Two. 

New  Testament  Translation. 

When  the  Commentaries  began  to  circulate  throughout 
the  country,  and  the  people  reading  them  found  the 
original  Scriptures,  which  I  always  road  and  use  in  all 
my  expositions,  so  much  plainer  and  more  easily  under- 


Rtv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  379 

stood  than  King  James'  translation,  which  not  only  con- 
tains two  thousand  errors  in  the  New  Testament  alone, 
but,  as  it  is  nearly  three  hundred  years  old  and  the 
English  language  has  undergone  much  change  in  that 
time,  much  of  the  phraseology  has  become  antiquated, 
so  that  it  no  longer  reveals  the  blessed  truth  so  clearly 
and  vividly  to  the  mind  of  the  student  as  does  the  verb- 
age  now  in  current  use. 

Therefore  people  began  to  plead  with  me  to  translate 
the  New  Testament  out  of  the  critical  original  into  plain, 
current  English.  The  reason  why  we  have  the  two 
thousand  errors  in  the  English  Version  is  because  they 
had  crept  into  the  Greek  during  the  long  roll  of  the 
Dark  Ages,  which  intervened  between  ancient  and 
modern  civilization,  when  barbarism  actually  captured 
the  world,  hovering  over  all  nations  like  a  nightmare. 
As  the  Roman  Empire  was  the  upholder  of  ancient 
civilization,  when  she  fell  under  the  invasion  of  the 
Goths.  Huns,  Vandals  and  Heruli,  the  barbaric  ancestors 
of  great  Russia,  after  a  three  hundred  years'  war,  in 
476  A.  D.,  ancient  civilization  passed  away,  followed  by 
that  dreary  period  of  a  thousand  years,  historically  ep- 
itheted  the  "Dark  Ages,"  during  which  not  one  man  in 
a  thousand  could  read  or  write.  Of  course  the  per- 
petuation of  the  Bible  by  transcriptions  would  necessarily 
involve  the  introduction  of  much  error,  both  by  the  omis- 
sions, as  many  beautiful  passages  rich  in  saving  truth 
slipped  through  the  fingers  of  the  transcribers,  and  by 
the  additions,  as  still  more  were  added,  first  in  the  form 
of  bracketed  explanations,  which  eventually  found  their 
way  into  the  body  of  the  text,  as  transcribers  overlooked 
or  inadvertently  neglected  to  perpetuate  the  parenthetical 


380  Autobiography  of 

clauses.  The  predilection  in  favor  of  addition  transcended 
the  subtraction.  Antecedently  to  the  art  of  printing,  A. 
D.  1551,  the  only  possible  chance  to  procure  a  Bible  was 
to  have  it  written  off  by  hand,  a  work  of  immense  labor 
and  incalculable  responsibility.  During  those  fifteen  cen- 
turies of  course  a  vast  amount  of  error  incidentally 
found  its  way  into  the  blessed  Scripture.  The  printing 
of  the  Bible  by  Stephanus,  in  London,  in  1551,  was  a 
sunburst  on  the  English  speaking  world,  as  it  forever 
did  away  with  the  necessity  of  transcribing,  which  was 
not  only  so  immense  a  labor  but  was  constantly  fraught 
more  or  less  with  deterioration  from  the  precious  truth, 
thereby  transmitted  from  age  to  age. 

One  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago  an  institution 
denominated  "Biblical  Criticism"  sprang  up  in  Christen- 
dom, having  for  its  object  the  recovery  of  the  Scriptures 
precisely  as  the  Holy  Ghost  gave  them,  thus  restoring 
to  the  Bible  all  of  the  lost  passages  as  fast  as  they  could 
find  them,  and  eliminating  all  of  the  interpolations  which, 
along  the  rolling  centuries,  had  found  their  way  into  the 
inspired  volume.  The  result  has  been  that  a  number  of 
Greek  Testaments  have  been  printed,  exhibiting  the 
achievements  of  the  critics,  e.  g.,  Scholtz,  Lachmann, 
Griesbach,  Tischendorf,  and  Westcott  and  Horb.  At 
present  Wescott  and  Horb  is  the  standard,  as  it  is  the 
youngest  and  consequently  contains  the  benefit  of  all 
antecedent  researches.  It  is,  however,  identical  with 
Tischendorf,  as  they  continued  to  publish  his  Testament 
after  his  death,  giving  their  own  names  to  it.  Tischen- 
dorf's  Testament,  which  I  have  used  ever  since  it  was 
published,  has  for  its  basis  the  Sinaitic  manuscript,  so- 
called  because  Tischendorf  discovered  it  in  the  convent 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  381 

of  St.  Catherine  on  Mt.  Sinai,  in  1859,  the  very  year  I 
graduated  in  college.  Hearing  the  wonderful  news  of 
the  greatest  discovery  of  modern  times,  in  the  providence 
of  God  I  procured  from  Germany  a  copy  of  the  first 
book  which  was  made  from  the  parchment  roll. 

This  great  scholar  and  critic,  Teschendorf,  spent  his 
whole  life  in  constant  toil,  for  forty  years  in  Palestine 
and  all  of  the  Bible  lands  hunting  everything  that  would 
throw  light  on  the  living  Word.  Meanwhile  noble  and 
generous  King  William  of  Germany  paid  all  of  his  ex- 
penses, a  princely  fortune,  as  he  often  had  fifty  to  one 
hundred  men  laboring  excavating  the  ruins  of  cities, 
that  he  might  find  everything  that  could  possibly  throw  a 
ray  of  light  on  the  vital  fact  of  just  what  constitutes  the 
inspired  volume.  Finally,  while  searching  in  that  ven- 
erable monastery  which  was  built  in  the  second  century 
to  commemorate  the  giving  of  the  law,  he  got  his  eye 
on  an  old  parchment  roll,  externally  indubitably  demon- 
strative of  its  great  antiquity,  and  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit 
revealed  to  him  that  it  was  His  Word.  Then  he  at  once 
proposed  to  the  monks  in  charge  of  the  monastery  to  buy 
it  from  them ;  soon,  by  his  persistent  effort,  finding  it 
necessary  to  tempt  their  cupidity  with  a  really  extrava- 
gant sum,  as  they  are  jealous  of  relics,  and  generally  hold 
them  with  a  tight  grip  which  filthy  lucre  alone  can  relax. 
Having  paid  them  for  it  with  the  money  so  generously 
furnished  by  his  king,  throwing  his  arms  around  it 
with  a  bounding  heart,  he  returned  to  Germany,  after  an 
absence  of  forty  years,  in  which  he  had  patiently  and 
faithfully  toiled  hunting  it. 

On  arrival  he  submitted  it  to  those  shrewd  chemists 
standing  at  the  front  of  the  scientific  world.     Chemistry, 


382  Autobiography  0? 

though  the  greatest  of  the  sciences,  is  the  youngest.  Out 
of  chemistry  has  originated  all  the  machinery  that  now 
sends  the  world  rushing  into  eternity  at  electrical  speed. 
Then  those  chemists  submitted  the  manuscript  to  their 
powerful  alkaline  solutions  whose  normal  effect  was  to 
limber  up  the  great  roll  of  sheep-skins,  till  they  could 
pick  them  off  one  by  one  with  perfect  security  and  spread 
them  out  like  a  great  book.  Another  effect  of  the  chem- 
icals was  to  bring  out  the  old  writings  of  which  hitherto 
no  mortal  eye  could  see  a  letter,  such  was  the  gr<  at 
antiquity  of  the  writings.  They  looked,  and  behold 
it  was  all  legible,  and  what  was  it?  A  complete  copy  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  dating  back  into  the  very  blaze 
of  the  Apostolic  Age.  The  venerable  man  of  God  who 
had  spent  his  life  hunting  it  took  a  big  shout  and  went 
to  Heaven,  actually  too  happy  to  tarry  longer  in  this 
tenement  of  clay.  He  was  like  good  old  Simeon  who 
had  spent  his  life  looking  for  his  Lord  to  appear,  and 
died  with  the  infant  Savior  in  his  arms. 

The  Christian  world  knows  not  its  indebtedness  to  the 
King  of  Germany  who  alone,  at  his  own  expense,  kept 
Tischendorf  and  his  laboring  men  in  the  Bible  lands  for 
forty  years  hunting  everything  that  could  throw  light 
on  the  infallible  Word,  and  finally  culminating  in  the 
glorious  discovery  of  this  manuscript,  where  God  had, 
in  His  signal  mercy,  preserved  it  ever  since  the  Apos- 
tolic Age,  thus  bridging  the  broad  chasm  of  the  Dark 
Ages  and  bringing  the  Christian  world  back  into  the 
resplendent  glory  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  when  holy  men 
of  God  actually  spoke  as  the  omniscient  Spirit  gave  them 
utterance. 

"Brother  Godbey,  how  do  you  know  that  this  Sinaitic 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  383 

manuscript,  which  you  have  been  reading  these  long 
years  and  have  recently  translated,  was  actually  written 
in  the  Apostolic  Age?"  I  take  pleasure  in  answering 
your  question.  There  is  no  date  in  the  manuscript, 
but  it  is  written  throughout  in  the  old  Uncial  capitals, 
which  were  used  by  the  Apostles,  but  superseded  by  the 
Cursives,  which  came  into  use  in  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries.  The  Apostle  John  lived,  about  thirty  years 
of  the  second  century.  Hence  the  chirography  of  this 
manuscript  incontestably  identifies  it  with  the  Apostolic 
Age. 

N.  B.  Matthew  wrote  his  Gospel  in  Judcea  for  the 
Jews  fifteen  years  after  our  Lord's  ascension ;  Luke  wrote 
his  for  the  Greeks  in  Corinth  as  dictated  by  Paul,  twenty- 
five  years  after  the  Lord's  ascension;  Mark  wrote  his 
in  Rome  for  the  Romans  as  dictated  by  Peter,  thirty 
years  after  the  Lord's  ascension ;  John  did  all  of  his 
writings  for  the  Christians  in  Ephesus,  sixty-five  years 
after  the  Lord's  ascension.  Each  book  in  the  Bible  was 
written  separately  from  all  the  balance,  the  compilement 
having  taken  place  some  time  afterward. 

As  this  manuscript  was  written  in  the  old  Uncial, 
it  must  have  been  at  least  as  early  as  the  third  century 
that  they  were  compiled  into  a  volume.  All  the  facts 
involved  really  confirm  the  conclusion  that  this  was  the 
first  compilement  of  the  New  Testament.  We  have  these 
words  in  reference  to  it !  "Co dex  Sinaiticus,  omninum 
antiquissimus  et  solus  integer."  "The  Sinaitic  manuscript, 
the  most  ancient  of  all  and  the  only  one  entire."  Of  all 
the  old  manuscripts  which  have  been  discovered,  this  is 
the  only  one  that  contains  the  whole  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  the  ablest  critics  pronounce  it  the  most  ancient 


384  Autobiography  of 

of  all.  Of  others,  the  Vatican  manuscript  is  the  largest 
aside  from  the  Sinaitic.  The  most  of  the  manuscripts 
which,  hy  vast  and  persevering-  researches,  have  been 
discovered,  consisted  only  of  a  single  hook,  e.  g.}  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew,  or  the  Epistle  to  the  Roman>,  etc. 

We  have  a  wonderful  providence  in  the  preservation 
of  this  manuscript  through  the  long  roll  of  the  Dark 
Ages,  while  ignorance  and  superstition  enveloped  the 
whole  earth  in  the  sable  mantle  of  an  intellectual  and 
spiritual  night. 

You  see  the  revelation  of  God's  precious  truth  which 
survived  in  primitive  purity  in  this  manuscript.  It 
had  to  await  two  great  and  wonderful  inventions  in 
order  to  be  revealed  to  the  world,  i.  e.,  the  art  of  print- 
ing and  the  science  of  chemistry.  Without  the  latter  it 
would  have  been  utterly  impossible  ever  to  have  de- 
ciphered it,  as  it  was  so  very  ancient  that  it  had  utterly 
faded  out  into  solid  raven  blackness.  Without  the  former 
it  would  have  been  corrupted  after  its  discovery,  because 
it  would  have  been  subject  to  transcriptions  in  order  to 
its  perpetuity  as  through  all  the  centuries  antedating  the 
art  of  printing.  We  see  God's  wonderful  providence  in 
preserving  it  during  those  1500  years  in  that  old  mon- 
astery, which  was  built  there  to  commemorate  the  giving 
of  the  law.  Thus  He  offsets  the  two  thousand  errors 
which  crept  into  the  New  Testament  alone,  and  many 
more  in  the  Old,  as  it  is  so  much  larger.  We  now  may 
rest  assured  that  we  have  the  full  revelation,  which  God 
made  in  its  pristine  purity,  and  can  feel  that  neither 
interpolations  nor  omissions  can  ever  again  contaminate 
this  limped  stream  of  living  water  flowing  out  from 
beneath  the  throne  of  God  "clear  as  crystal,"  since  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  385 

art  of  printing  has   forever  precluded  the  necessity  of 
transcribing  it  any  more. 

the  publication  of  my  Commentaries,  expounding 
the  Scriptures  in  the  pure,  original  Greek,  evoked  a  uni- 
versal clamor  for  a  translation  in  which  the  people  would 
have  the  New  Testament  in  the  charming  beauty  and 
simplicity  in  which  they  had  found  it  elucidated  in  the 
Commentaries,  therefore,  the  clamor  becoming  not  only 
universal  but  importunate,  Brother  Knapp,  as  the  spokes- 
man of  the  Holiness  people,  the  last  time  I  ever  looked 
in  his  inspiring  face,  bidding  him  adieu  for  a  midnight 
train  at  the  close  of  his  last  camp-meeting  in  this  world, 
continued  importunately  to  plead  with  me  to  translate 
the  New  Testament,  at  the  same  time  offering  me  a 
thousand  dollars  for  that  arduous  work.  When  I  bade 
him  adieu,  he  still  held  my  hand  observing;  "I  am  never 
going  to  let  go  your  hand  till  you  promise  me  to  trans- 
late the  New  Testament."  Then  I  acquiesced,  went  at 
it  and  was  in  the  midst  of  the  work  when  the  telegram 
arrived  calling  me  to  his  funeral.  As  he  was  twenty 
years  my  junior,  I  expected  him  to  preach  my  funeral. 
Thus  you  see,  in  the  case  of  the  Commentaries,  God  used 
that  paragon  saint  to  bring  into  the  world  the  literal 
translation  of  the  manuscript  through  my  humble  in- 
strumentality. It.  has  received  a  wonderful  circulation 
in  a  short  time,  actually  girdling  the  globe.  Since  my 
arrival  from  my  last  tour,  in  one  mail  I  sent  away  ninety- 
two  copies  to  India. 

There  are  two  reasons  why  none  of  the  people  who  do 
not  read  Greek  like  English  (and  but  one  in  a  million 
does)  cannot  afford  to  do  without  this  translation. 
The  first  is,  because  it  is  the  only  translation  in  the  world 


386  Autobiography   of 

in  which  you  get  just  what  the  Lord  says,  all  He  says, 
and  no  more,  and  that  is  what  you  all  so  imperatively 
need  and  cannot  afford  to  do  without.  The  other  rea- 
son is  because  it  harmonizes  the  Gospels  in  such  a  manner 
that  at  a  single  look  you  see  everything  the  Lord  said 
and  did.  Besides  it  gives  you  the  Lord's  entire  ministry, 
arranged  in  topics  as  they  transpired  in  consecutive  or- 
der. Some  things  none  but  Matthew  wrote,  others  Mark 
alone  reveals,  in  others  we  must  depend  on  Luke  alone 
for  the  blessed  revelation,  and  meanwhile  John  much 
of  the  time  stands  alone.  Some  things  two  of  them  give, 
others  three,  and  still  others  the  entire  four.  In  the 
harmony,  you  have  everything  whether  by  one,  two,  three 
or  four,  all  exhibited  before  the  eye  at  a  single  look, 
everything  the  Lord  said  and  did.  And  at  the  same 
time  the  topics  are  so  arranged  in  consecutive  order  that 
you  will  all  the  time  know  where  you  are  and  at  what 
date  in  the  Lord's  ministry.  Therefore  the  harmony  is 
absolutely  indispensable  to  enable  you  with  full  intelligi- 
bility and  efficiency  to  study  His  wonderful  ministry. 

Robert  Ingersol,  the  great  infidel,  was  truly  an  intel- 
lectual giant,  towering  among  his  peers,  primus  inter 
pares,  "first  among  his  comrades,"  while  he  utterly  dis- 
carded the  Bible,  believing  not  a  word  of  it,  and  con- 
sequently freely  and  even  recklessly  criticised  Moses,  the 
prophets  and  Apostles.  He  broke  down  in  his  attempt 
to  criticize  Jesus,  calling  Him,  "The  youngest  Jew," 
(certainly  He  was  the  youngest  Author  in  the  Bible,  only 
thirty-three  when  they  killed  Him.  At  that  age  I  had 
never  dreamed  of  writing  a  book.0  Bob  said  so  signifi- 
cantly, "That  young  Jew  just  beats  them  all." 

The  longer  I  live  the  more  profoundly  I  appreciate  all 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  387 

the  works  of  Jesus  which  have  come  down  to  me  in  the 
blessed  Volume  of  Truth.  Paul  is  deep,  but  Jesus  still 
deeper.  Peter  is  fire,  but  Jesus  is  dynamite.  Take  the 
Harmony  in  which  you  see  all  His  utterances  on  every 
subject,  arranged  in  parallel  columns,  and  ask  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  help  you  to  apprehend  the  deep  truths  He  com- 
municated. As  for  instance  when  the  Pharisees,  who 
were  the  orthodox  wing  of  the  anti-administration  party 
and  most  inveterately  opposed  to  Roman  rule,  united  with 
theHerodians,  who  were  the  Roman  party,  in  order  to 
lasso  Jesus  and  get  Him  into  trouble.  Approaching  Him 
together  they  asked  Him  the  insidious  question,  "Tell  us, 
Shall  we  pay  tribute  to  Caesar,  or  no?"  If  he  had  said 
"Yes,"  they,  the  Pharisees,  were  just  ready  to  have  Him 
arrested  and  arraigned  before  the  Sanhedrim  for  dis- 
loyalty to  the  theocracy.  If  He  had  said  "No,"  then  the 
Herodians  were  ready  to  have  Him  arrested  and  brought 
before  Pilate  for  disloyalty  to  Caesar.  Therefore,  they 
felt  perfectly  sure  that  they  would  gore  Him  with  one 
or  the  other  horn  of  the  dilemma.  But  you  see  He  simply 
asked  them  to  hand  Him  the  coin  which  they  used  to 
pay  tribute,  the  denarius,  the  most  common  in  circulation 
at  that  time,  and  bearing  the  image  of  Caesar.  When 
they  handed  it  to  Him  and  He  looked  at  it,  He  said, 
"Whose  is  this  image  and  superscription  ?"  and  they  re- 
sponded "Caesar's."  Then  handing  it  back  He  merely 
observed,  "Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's, 
and  unto  God  the  things  that  are  God's."  To  this  neither 
party  could  possibly  take  any  exception,  but  both  were 
utterly  dumbfounded ;  and  without  another  word  they 
went  away.    For  three  years  all  the  great,  scholarly  men 


388'  Autobiography  op 

of  the  Sanhedrim  put  their  heads  together  to  lasso  and 
down  Him,  but  utterly  failed. 

When  the  holiness  people  constrained  me  to  translate 
the  New  Testament,  they  did  not  ask  me  to  give  them 
the  harmony  of  the  Gospels,  but  I  knew  not  one  of  them 
in  a  thousand  had  any  harmony,  and  that  all  the  har- 
monies that  had  been  made  so  abounded  in  error  that 
it  was  a  pity  for  people  to  use  them.  Therefore  I  felt  it 
my  duty  to  give  them  the  harmony  of  the  Gospels  in  a 
correct  translation,  so  they  could  all  intelligently  and 
successfully  study  the  Lord's  ministry  with  all  the  pos- 
sible facilities  to  master  the  situation. 

Even  since  they  discovered  the  Sinaitic  manuscript,  1 
have  made  it  a  rule  to  carry  with  me  the  inspired  Greek 
everywhere  I  go.  As  I  travelled  around  the  world  last 
year,  (1906),  I  actually,  by  snatching  up  the  fugitive 
moments  now  and  then  as  I  might  happen  to  have  a  little 
leisure,  read  it  through  five  times.  The  whole  Bible  is 
too  heavy  to  carry  constantly,  under  all  circumstances  of 
manual  labour  and  business  peregrinations,  but  not  so 
with  the  New  Testament.  It  is  small  enough  to  carry 
in  your  pocket  everywhere  you  go  and  riding  on  the  car 
or  waiting  for  the  train,  you  can  read  so  much  of  it  and 
treasure  it  up  in  your  memory,  besides  constantly  using 
it  as  your  sword  both  of  defense  and  offense.  Let  me 
insist  that  you  now  adopt  the  rule  of  constantly  carrying 
a  New  Testament.  You  will  soon  get  so  used  to  it  that 
you  will  feel  lost  without  it.  Rest  assured  that  the  longer 
you  pursue  that  ~  habit  the  more  you  will  be  delighted 
with  the  precious  Word  of  the  Lord  and  the  sweeter  and 
richer  it  will  become.  It  will  develop  in  you  the  habit 
of  studying  the  Word  each  revolving  day.     It  will  also 


Rev.  W.  E.  Godbey,  A.  M.  389 

be  a  constant  inspiration  to  you  to  minister  this  blessed 
saving  truth  to  the  people  with  whom,  in  the  providence 
of  God,  you  come  in  contact.  So  my  life-long  habit  has 
become  the  carrying  of  the  Greek  Testament,  feasting 
on  it  night  and  clay.  I'll  advise  you  to  carry  the  trans- 
lation of  your  humble  servant,  as  in  it  you  have  the  Word 
of  the  Lord  faithfully  translated  out  of  the  pure  original, 
without  addition  or  subtraction,  so  that  you  can  rest 
assured  that  everything  you  read  is  just  what  the  Lord 
has  revealed.  Besides,  it  is  the  only  one  that  harmonizes 
the  Gospels  so  that  at  a  single  look  you  can  see  every- 
thing the  Lord  said  and  did  and  study  His  ministry  in 
its  regular  historic  order.  You  can  find  other  harmonies, 
but  they  do  not  contain  anything  but  the  Gospels,  and 
besides,  they  are  much  encumbered  with  errors.  You 
want  the  entire  New  Testament  in  a  single  volume,  con- 
venient for  you  to  stick  in  your  pocket  and  carry  every- 
where you  go,  and  that  volume  ought  to  contain  the 
Gospel  harmony,  to  prepare  you  for  the  clear,  topical 
study  of  the  Lord's  ministry  in  consecutive  order.  All 
of  this  you  have  nowhere  in  the  world,  except  in  the 
above  translation.  In  the  other  current  translations, 
whereas  the  most  of  the  errors  are  corrected,  some  of  the 
large  interpolations  are  retained  to  the  detriment  of  the 
student  who  does  not  want  to  encumber  his  memory  with 
anything  but  the  real  and  literal  Word  which  the  Holy 
Ghost  has  revealed.  Besides,  these  translations  do  not 
give  you  the  harmony  of  the  Gospels. 

Section  Three. 

"Footprints  of  Jesus." 

My  "Footprints  of  Jesus"  has  been  wonderfully  blessed 


390  Autobiography   op 

in  its  circulation  among  the  people,  and  also  very  exten- 
sive. The  most  intellectual  and  cultured  people  in  this 
commonwealth,  whose  names  I  could  give  you,  have  told 
me  that  it  was  the  most  interesting  book  they  had  ever 
read.  In  a  mysterious  way  it  is  exceedingly  magnetic 
to  people.  A  sanctified  woman  in  a  New  England  city, 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  all  of  my  writings,  said 
to  me,  "Brother  Godbey,  I  do  wish  you  had  a  book  which 
my  infidel  husband  would  read.  He  is  a  scientist  and 
a  great  reader,  but  never  reads  the  Bible  nor  any  relig- 
ious book."  I  said,  I  have  a  book  here  that  he  will  read 
if  he  gets  his  hand  on  it.  She  bought  it  unhesitatingly, 
carried  it  home  and  handed  it  to  him.  lie  read  it  night 
and  day  and  in  forty-eight  hours  was  in  the  meetings  and 
asking  everybody  to  pray  for  him.  He  is  now  the  best 
reader  I  have,  reading  everything  I  write  with  the 
greatest  appreciation,  and  always  making  me  stay  with 
him  when  I  go  thither  to  preach.  He  is  a  very  humble, 
beautiful  Christian  character.  This  book  has  an  especial 
charm  for  children,  who  read  it  over  and  over  with  de- 
lightful edification.  Sinners  read  it  like  a  novel  and  get 
their  souls  blessed.    It  should  certainly  be  in  every  home. 

Section  Four. 

"Life  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles." 

My  "Life  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles,"  containing 
nearly  five  hundred  pages,  elegantly  bound  iti  cloth, 
should  be  read  and  studied  by  every  lover  of  the  Savior. 
In  it  you  will  find  a  lucid  exposition  of  His  wonderful 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  391 

life,  inimitable  ministry,  mighty  works,  tragical  death, 
triumphant  resurrection  and  glorious  ascension.  His 
life  is  really  the  only  model  in  all  the  world  to  which 
we  can  look  without  the  shade  of  possible  cavil  or  criti- 
cism. Oh,  the  inestimable  value  of  that  life!  We  have 
but  to  read  it  and  see  how  to  live  and  die.  In  the  old 
world  a  thousand  millions  of  people  are  looking  upon 
Buddha,  Confucius  and  Zoroaster,  whose  bright  light  did 
shine  out  in  India,  China  and  Persia  about  500  B.  C. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  they  were  great  intel- 
lectually, morally,  educationally  and  philanthropically,  as 
the  people  to  this  day  are  looking  to  them  for  examples. 
They  were  not  at  all  satisfied  with  their  own  lives,  and 
died  longing  after  a  perfect  example.  Oh,  if  they  had  only 
lived  in  the  Gospel  dispensation,  received  the  Bible  and 
learned  about  the  Son  of  God  living  and  dying  upon  the 
earth,  not  only  to  redeem  us  all  from  sin,  death  and  Hell, 
but  to  give  us  a  perfect  model  of  human  life !  He  is 
really  the  only  Man  that  ever  came  into  this  world  perfect 
and  left  it  in  the  same  glorious  plight.  Adam  began 
alright  and  how  long  he  enjoyed  his  original  perfection 
in  Eden  we  know  not.  But  to  our  sorrow  we  know  that 
Satan  slew  him,  and  for  that  reason  Satan  is  called, 
"A  murderer  from  the  beginning."  Jesus  Christ  is  the 
only  son  of  Adam  and  Eve  who  ever  retained  His  per- 
fection to  the  end  of  life,  therefore  He  is  the  paragon 
for  every  human  being  to  emulate.  Can  we  receive  the 
perfection  of  His  humanity?  We  can  by  the  wonderful 
plan  of  salvation,  which  He  died  to  propagate  upon  the 
earth,  with  the  exception  of  the  infirmities  which  cling 
to  us  as  the  effects  of  the  fall.  Of  course  He  never  had 
any  infirmities,  neither  would  we  have  if  we  had  not 


392  Autobiography   or 

fallen.  These  infirmities  will  inhere  in  oor  - ^irittial  or- 
ganism, there  to  abide  till  illuminated  hy  the  third  gnat 
work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  glorification. 

In  regeneration  we  receive  a  new  heart,  i.  c.  new  life 
into  the  fallen  human  spirit.  That  life  is  antagonized  by 
the  depravity  hereditary  is  the  heart  till  illuminated  by 
the  expurgation  of  the  cleansing  blood  dispensed  by  the 
I  loly  Ghost  in  the  human  soul,  thus  conferring  a  perfect 
work  of  grace,  which  consists  with  the  infirmities,  en- 
gendered by  the  fall,  which  always  encumber  the  saved 
soul  till  this  mortal  puts  on  immortality.  In  the  won- 
derful economy  of  grace,  justification  takes  away  the 
condemnation  supervenient  upon  our  own  transgressions, 
and  sanctification  expurgates  our  depravity  by  the  won- 
derful elixir  of  the  cleansing  blood,  while  it  is  the 
province  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  glorification  to  eliminate 
mortality,  thus  forever  removing  our  infirmities.  The 
glorious  work  of  God  in  Christ,  wrought  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  puts  us  where  we  cannot  only  enjoy  that  exper- 
ience of  perfection  in  the  heart,  but  actually  live  it  before 
the  world,  however  still  encumbered  with  infirmities,  and 
longing  for  the  glorious  redemption  which  will  trans- 
figure both  the  soul  and  the  body,  forever  sweeping  away 
all  the  dark  debris  of  the  fall.  Therefore  our  wonderful 
Savior  leaves  us  without  excuse. 

Jesus  has  done  a  double  work,  perfectly  redeeming  us 
from  the  condemnation  of  the  violated  law  by  His  vicar- 
ious, substitutionary  atonement,  clearing  every  conceiv- 
able difficulty  forever  out  of  the  way,  and  perfectly  and 
eternally  satisfying  the  law,  so  there  is  no  conceivable 
apology  for  the  damnation  of  a  solitary  soul.  Besides. 
He  sends  His  omnipotent  Spirit  to  awaken,  illuminate, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  393 

convict,  regenerate,  adopt,  witness,  sanctify  and  fill  every 
soul,  thus  actually  by  His  own  omnipotent  energies  re- 
storing to  humanity  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  and 
effecting  perfect  reconcilement  and  reinstatement  in  the 
kingdom,  which  we  forfeited  by  the  fall  and,  though  en- 
cumbered by  the  infirmities  incident  to  mortality  and 
consequent  upon  the  fall,  yet  these  infirmities  do  not 
vitiate  the  beautiful  experience  of  Christian  perfection 
which  He  has  given  us. 

This  is  not  a  perfection  of  works,  i.  e.,  legal  obedience, 
which  would  be  vitiated  by  our  infirmities,  but  it  is  a 
perff ; '_ ;  >n  of  love,  in  which  He  takes  the  will  for  the 
deed.  We  "love  the  Lord  with  all  the  heart,  soul,  mind 
and  strength,  and  love  our  neighbor  as  ourself,"  actually 
''esteeming  others  better  than  ourselves."  This  perfect 
love  our  Torcl  sees  in  our  heart  and  life,  and  is  delighted 
with  it,  neither  does  He  discount  it  in  consequence  of  the 
pecadilloes  incident  to  our  frail  mortality,  which  will  all 
eternally  evanesce  before  the  transfiguration  glory. 

This  unutterably  wonderful  Savior  has  not  only  satis- 
fied the  law  passively  by  paying  our  penalty,  by  which 
He  has  redeemed  us  forever,  but  He  has  actually  lived 
our  life  for  us  on  the  earth,  actively  keeping  the  law 
on  earth  for  us,  and  thus  procuring  a  double  satisfac- 
tion. Meanwhile  He  has  exemplified  the  very  identical 
life  we  are  to  live,  leaving  us  without  excuse,  because 
He  has  taken  all  the  difficulties  out  of  the  way,  gracious- 
ly, by  His  omnipotent  Spirit,  conferring  on  us  the  life 
and  giving  us  all  needed  help  to  live  it  day  by  day,  thus 
utterly  and  eternally  sweeping  away  every  apology  for 
sin,  either  actual  or  original,  whereas  the  infirmities 
normal  to  our  fallen  state  really  have  no  power  to  vitiate 


394  Autobiography  of 

the  perfect  spiritual  life  in  our  hearts  for  the  obedience 
of  perfect  love,  which  we  live.  These  infirmities  in  the 
Bible  are  denominated  sins  of  ignorance,  and,  though 
incompatible  with  the  heavenly  state,  have  no  power  to 
cither  condemn  or  pollute  in  the  present  life,  as  they  are 
abundantly  provided  for  in  Christ.  This  we  see  beau- 
tifully and  powerfully  illustrated  in  the  cities  of  refuge, 
which  were  three  in  number  on  either  side  of  the  Jordan, 
so  that  the  involuntary  homocide  could  surely  reach  one 
of  them,  unobstructed  by  Jordan's  flood.  If  the  avenger 
of  blood  overtook  him  he  would  certainly  kill  him,  but 
there  was  no  reason  why  he  should  overtake  him,  as  he 
always  got  the  start  of  him  and  as  there  was  no  real 
obstruction  in  his  way.  He  had  nothing  to  do  but  to 
run  with  all  his  might  and  fall  headlong  through  the  gate 
of  the  city  and  in  that  way  was  perfectly  safe.  If  the 
avenger  of  blood  should  then  slay  him,  his  nearest  rela- 
tive would  certainly  kill  the  avenger.  These  cities  of 
refuge  beautifully  symbolize  our  wonderful  Christ,  who 
has  actually  provided  for  everything.  These  infirmities 
are  accidental  violations  of  the  divine  law,  illustrated  in 
the  Bible  by  a  man  chopping  down  a  tree  and  the  axe 
flying  off  the  handle  and  killing  a  man  who  happened  to 
come  up  behind  and  the  chopper  did  not  see  him ;  hence 
they  rank  as  mere  accidents  in  which  we  do  wrong 
while  aiming  to  do  right. 

While  the  Christian  perfection  we  enjoy  in  this  life 
is  not  vitiated  by  these  sins  of  ignorance,  the  angelic 
perfection,  which  we  receive  in  glorification  and  enjoy 
in  Heaven,  would  be  utterly  marred  and  ruined  by  acci- 
dental transgressions  of  the  Divine  law.  Therefore  the 
angels  are   forever  kept  even   from   sins  of  ignorance. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  395 

But  our  blessed  Christ  has  so  wonderfully  redeemed  us 
that  He  has  provided  for  the  elimination  of  all  these 
infirmities  which  conduce  to  sins  of  ignorance. 

While  biography  is  doubtless  the  most  profitable  line 
of  reading,  it  is  of  course  a  universally  conceded  fact 
that  every  biography  in  all  the  ages  is  incident  to  in- 
firmities, except  that  of  our  glorious  Lord.  Therefore 
while  we  may  derive  vast  help  by  acquainting  ourselves 
with  the  lives  of  the  Lord's  people,  yet  they  are  to  be 
taken  more  or  less  at  discount  in  every  case,  leaving  a 
large  margin  for  infirmities.  We  all  in  this  life  need  a 
perfect  examplar.  My  teachers  used  to  tell  me  always 
to  aim  high,  as  I  was  very  likely  to  drop  down  below 
the  mark  of  my  aspiration.  As  our  glorious  Lord  has 
taken  it  on  Himself  to  come  to  this  world,  and  has  given 
us  a  perfect  example  showing  us  how  to  live  and  die, 
therefore  the  value  of  His  biography  is  absolutely  in- 
estimable to  us.  Oh,  what  a  world  we  would  have  if 
every  human  being  in  it  would  acquaint  himself  with  the 
life  of  Jesus  and  walk  in  His  footprints!  No  human 
being  can  do  it  without  the  prevenient  concomitant  grace 
which  He  freely  gives  through  the  blessed  intervention 
of  His  Holy  Spirit.  But  we  are  so  happy  to  say  that  He 
leaves  us  without  excuse.  When  He  so  frequently  rings 
out  the  proclamation,  "Follow  me,"  rest  assured  He  is 
not  mocking  us,  because  He  freely  gives  us  all  the  help 
we  need  to  obey  that  and  every  other  commandment. 
N.  B.  Obedience  legitimately  appertains  to  citizens  of 
His  kingdom.  No  sinner  can  possibly  keep  our  Lord's 
commandments,  because  he  is  a  citizen  of  Satan's  king- 
dom who  is  too  strong  for  him  and  assuredly  will  not  let 
him  obey  the  Lord.     But  if  he  will  cry  to  God  He  will 


396  Autobiography  of 

send  him  His   Holy  Spirit  anywhere  thi      ide  of  Hell, 

to  defeat  the  devil,  break  his  chains  and  set  him  free. 
In  regeneration  he  is  born  into  the  family  of  God  and 
becomes  a  bona  fide  citizen  of  His  kingdom.  Then  by 
His  sustaining  grace  and  sanctifying  power  he  can  walk 
in  the  footprints  of  Jesus,  to  his  infinite  benefit  prompted 
by  the  Lord's  infallible  example,  both  in  life  and  in  death. 
This  "Life  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles,"  you  will  find 
infinitely  valuable  as  an  expositor  of  His  wonderful 
preaching,  by  far  the  best  preaching  the  world  ever 
heard  or  ever  will  till  He  comes  in  His  glory. 

It  so  happens  that  the  Bible  does  not  follow  any  of 
the  Apostles  to  the  end  of  their  lives,  except  poor  Judas, 
who  died  first  of  all  by  awful  suicide,  and  James,  the 
elder  brother  of  John  and  son  of  Zebedee,  whom  Herod 
Agrippa  beheaded  with  the  sword.  The  destiny  of  the 
other  Apostles  we  have  to  find  in  history.  After  those 
awful,  exterminating  wars  by  the  Romans,  began  to 
gather  the  formidable  tempests  threatening  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  Jewish  nation,  whose  nationality  they  did 
obliterate.  All  of  the  Apostles,  pursuant  to  our  Lord's 
commission,  (Matt.  28:  19),  then  divided  up  the  great 
heathen  world  and  separated,  never  to  meet  again  this 
sid.e  the  pearly  gates,  each  one  going  to  his  respective 
field  of  labor. 

Matthew  received  Ethiopia  as  his  appointment, 
whither  faithfully  going,  he  preached  heroically  till 
bloody  martyrdom  gave  him  his  discharge  for  a  kingdom 
and  a  crown  by  the  side  of  his  martyred  Predecessor, 
in  the  bright  upper  world. 

Matthias,  who  was  elected  to  take  the  place  of  fallen 
Judas,  also   received  his  appointment  in  Africa,   being 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  397 

sent  to  Abyssinia,  where  he  also  faithfully  preached  till 
his  enemies  cruelly  murdered  him  and  he  exchanged 
Eastern  Africa  for  the  New  Jerusalem. 

Thomas,  the  famour  doubter,  whose  doubts  were  all 
consumed  in  the  Pentecostal  fires,  received  India,  the 
largest  country  in  the  known  world  at  that  time,  as  his 
field  of  labor.  When  I  was  there  a  few  months  ago,  I 
travelled  in  the  region  of  his  ministry  and  near  the  place 
of  his  martyrdom,  as  they  informed  me.  Thousands  of 
people  are  there  to-day,  known  as  the  Christians  of  St. 
Thomas  and  claiming  to  be  his  followers. 

Jude  received  Tartary,  a  great  and  powerful  n. 
at  that  time,  bordering  on  China,  which  would  have  been 
included  in  his  field  of  labor  if  they  had  let  him  alone. 
But  as  the  Brahman  priests  led  the  cruel  mob  that  per- 
forated the  body  of  Thi  mas  with  an  iron  bar,  and  hung 
him  up  between  two  trees,  so  the  cruel  pagan  pi 
in  the  case  of  Jude,  instigated  the  barbaric  reprobates  to 
tie  him  to  a  tree  and  enjoy  a  shooting  match  at  his 
expense,  gambling  with  each  other  who  could  shoot  an 
arrow  in  his  right  eye,  etc.,  thus  literally  plugging  his 
full  of  arro 

Andrew  received  Armenia  as  his  field  of  labor,  whither 
faithfully  going  he  preached  heroically  till  they  crucified 
him  on  the  X  which  to  this  day  is  known  among 

Roman  Catholics  as  St.  An  'few's  cross. 

Bartholomew,  who  lanael,  a  native  of  Cana  in 

Galilee,  received  Phrygia,  a  very  barbaric  country  in 
Northern  Asia,  whither  h  lly  went  and  zeaL 

preached  the  livin  with  the  Hoi}'  Ghost  sent  down 

Heaven.     Meanwhile,  the  seal  of  God  settled  down 
on  his  ministry  and  he  saw  a  great  harvest  ripe  for  the 


398  Autobiography  op 

sickle ;  so,  pressing  the  battle  with  redoubtable  energy  for 
God  and  souls,  Hell  was  stirred  and  Satan  raised  an 
awful  hubbub.  The  civil  commotion  was  intense  and  the 
excitement  wild  and  furious,  so  that  the  king  concluded 
that  the  available  remedy  was  to  drive  off  the  preacher. 
Consequently  he  ordered  him  to  leave  his  country  and 
never  return,  as  he  blamed  him  for  making  the  awful 
trouble  which  threatened  the  very  stability  of  his  govern- 
ment. Then  when  he  did  not  obey  the  royal  mandate, 
the  king  got  so  awfully  mad  at  him  that  he  had  him 
skinned  alive  as  an  effectual  terror  to  evil  doers,  since 
he  concluded  that  he  was  an  awfully  bad  man  as  he  had 
raised  such  a  terrible  hubbub  among  the  people. 

Philip  received  Syria  as  his  field  of  labor,  which  con- 
tains Baalbek,  the  universal  metropolis  of  Asiatic  idol- 
atry, whither  all  nations  from  the  days  of  Cain  had  re- 
sorted bringing  their  sumptuous  offerings  to  Baal  the 
sun  god.  Therefore  of  course  it  devolved  on  Philip  to 
actually  beard  the  lion  in  his  den.  This  he  did  most 
heroically,  going  right  into  Baalbek,  preaching  Christ 
.and  thundering  against  idolatry  like  a  messenger  from 
Heaven.  They  did  not  stand  him  very  long  till  they 
reciprocated  his  great  doctrine,  "Jesus  crucified,"  by 
crucifying  him. 

Simon  Zelotes,  as  history  informs  us,  received  for  his 
appointment  insular  Europe,  i.  e.,  England,  Ireland, 
Scotland  and  Wales,  the  land  of  our  American  ancestry, 
and  the  cradle  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  race.  Those 
countries  not  only  abounded  in  the  popular  religions  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  but  in  the  native  Druidism.  Thus  you 
see  this  fiery  apostle,  named  "Zelot"  because  the  dyna- 
mite predominated  in  his  character,  was  the  apostle  of 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  399 

our  ancestors.  He,  too,  while  preaching  the  Gospel  all 
over  those  countries  was  permitted  to  go  to  Heaven  with 
a  martyr's  crown. 

Luke,  the  faithful  and  indefatigable  amanuensis  of 
Paul,  honored  to  write  the  most  of  the  New  Testament 
when  his  senior  preached,  was  arrested  at  Nicapolis, 
Greece,  and  carried  away  to  Rome  the  second  time,  for 
prosecution,  under  charge  of  burning  the  city,  not  per- 
sonally, but  because  it  was  imputed  to  the  Christians  and 
he  was  their  prominent  leader.  He  was  finally  hanged 
on  an  olive  tree  in  Greece. 

Mark,  the  faithful  amanuensis  of  Peter,  who  is  said 
to  have  dictated  the  Gospel  that  bears  his  name,  received 
Egypt,  the  oldest  nation  in  the  world.  Faithful  to  his 
appointment  and  off  to  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs,  he  went 
like  a  hero  to  the  battle-field,  peregrinated  the  country, 
and  everywhere  contended  for  "the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints,"  till  an  awful  persecution  in  Alexandria 
culminated  in  a  cruel  mob,  who  dragged  him  through  the 
streets  by  the  feet  till  the  angels  descended  and  took  him 
out  of  their  hands.  When  you  go  to  Egypt  do  not  forget 
to  visit  his  tomb  as  well  as  that  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

Peter  is  said  to  have  received  Rome,  the  world's  me- 
tropolis, with  all  of  Italy,  the  dominant  country  of  the 
globe,  for  his  field  of  labor.  His  Epistles  located  him  at 
Babylon,  which  was  then  a  heap  of  ruins  and  uninhabited 
and  with  no  historic  corroboration  of  any  apostle  ever 
travelling  in  that  region.  Babylon  is  not  only  the  current 
name  of  Rome  in  the  prophecies,  but  is  said  to  have  been 
in  common  use  at  that  time.  After  they  had  beheaded 
Paul,  the  saints  importuned  Peter  to  leave  the  city  lest 
they  might  be  deprived  of  his  ministry  and  leadership,  as 


400  Autobiography  otf 

well  as  that  of  his  noble  compeer,  who  had  already  sealed 
his  faith  with  his  blood.    Therefore,  acquiescing  in  their 

earnest  appeal,  going  out  along  the  A]  pian  Way  bei 
the  twinkling  stars,  he  suddenly  m  going  rapi  lly 

into  the  city.  Turning  his  face  on  1  Inn  he  says,  "Domine, 
quo  vadis?"  ("Whither  goest  thou,  I.'  rd  "  )  Then  Jesus 
answered,  "Peter.  I  am  going  to  Rome  to  he  crucified 
again,"  and  suddenly  vanished  out  of  his  sight.  Peter 
understood  the  lesson,  turned  around,  went  back  to  Rome 
and  told  them  that  he  was  to  be  crucified  there,  and  so 
he  was,  on  the  Campus  Martins,  where  the  cathedral  of 
St.   Peter  now   stands,   the  m<  I  rated   building  in 

the  world,  whose  erection  occupied  two  hundred  years 
and  cost  two  hundred  million  dollars.  If  you  ever  go  to 
Rome  and  travel  out  the  Appian  Way  due  south,  you 
will  come  to  a  nice  stone  church  on  your  left,  super- 
scribed, "Domine,  quo  vadis?"  marking  the  spot  where 
Jesus  met  Peter,  as  history  certifies. 

Paul  being  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  it  seems 
that  they  mutually  recognized  in  him  a  practical  epis- 
copacy, including  the  wdiole  Christian  world  and  especial- 
ly Asia  and  Europe,  extending  from  Jerusalem  to  Rome. 
He  was  brought  to  Rome  the  second  time,  in  A.  D.  68. 
His  first  iment  there  had  taken  place  in  A.  D. 

6l  and  occupied  about  three  years,  when  having  stood  his 
trial  and  been  acquitted  for  the  want  of  evidence,  lie 
was  permitted  to  trav  1  aid  preach  till  arrested  at  Nica- 
polis  and- carried  :  ain  to  Rome.  This  second  time,  he 
was  incarcerated  in  the  Mamertine  prison  (which  you  will 
visit  if  you  ever  go  thither")  till  Nero  got  ready  to  sit  in 
judgment  aganst   him  o  be  intere  ted   in 

visiting  the  old  Judgn  mtain 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  401 

in  the  ruins  of  Caesar's  palace,  where  Paul  was  tried  for 
his  life  and  condemned  to  die,  under  the  implication  of 
the  general  charge  against  the  Christians  for  burning 
Rome.  As  he  was  a  Roman  citizen,  they  could  not  cru- 
cify him,  therefore,  they  led  him  out  through  the  west 
gate,  which  this  clay  bears  his  name,  and  decapitated  him 
with  a  sword. 

Among  all  of  the  different  books  written  on  the  life 
of  our  Lord,  mine  is  the  only  one  that  gives  a  chapter 
on  His  descension  into  Hades,  His  triumph  over  Satan 
and  his  myrmidons  and  the  abolishment  of  the  inter- 
mediate Paradise,  the  emancipation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment saints  and  their  ascension  with  Him  into  Heaven. 
As  the  No-Hellites,  Millennial  Dawners,  and  Seventh 
Day  Adventists,  as  well  as  the  Universalists,  are  now 
preaching  that  He  abolished  Hell  when  He  descended 
thither,  while  His  body  hung  on  the  cross  and  lay  in  the 
sepulchre,  it  is  very  important  that  you  have  this  book 
in  order  to  refute  them,  because  it  clearly  shows  up  their 
cunning  falsifications.  You  will  see  that  there  is  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  their  hypothesis  of  His  abolishment  of 
Hell,  which  He  certainly  did  not;  but  He  did  abolish 
the  intermediate  Paradise,  leading  up  with  Him  the  Old 
Testament  saints.  (Eph.  4:8-10.)  He  left  Hell  there 
in  Hades  with  all  of  its  inmates,  where  they  will  remain 
until  the  final  Judgment,  when  they  will  all  be  called  up 
to  stand  before  the  great  white  throne  and  receive  their 
awful  adjudication,  (Rev.  20:  14),  antecedently  to  their 
final  and  eternal  ejectment  into  the  lake  of  fire,  located 
in  outer  darkness  (v.  15). 

These  No-Hellites  are  so  very  adroit  and  cunning, 
pressing  in  everything  that  can  possibly  give  the  slight- 


402  Autobiography  of 

est  plausibility  to  their  Hell-hatched  falsification,  that 
you  need  all  the  help  you  can  get  to  panoply  you  against 
their  insidious  sophistries  with  which  they  are  now  hallu- 
cinating millions  of  superficial  Bible  readers  into  the 
diabolical  delusion  that  Hell  has  already  been  abolished. 
This  book,  "The  Life  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Apostles," 
you  should  not  only  carefully  read  but  study,  and  so 
commit  it  to  memory  that  you  can  readily  appropriate 
in  your  Biblical  thesaurus  the  priceless  truths  appertain- 
ing to  the  wonderful  life  and  ministry  of  our  Lord  and 
His  Apostles. 

Section  Five. 

"Glorification." 

This  is  the  only  book  in  circulation  on  this  subject, 
which  is  the  third  great  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the 
reconstruction  of  fallen  humanity  back  into  the  complete 
similitude  in  which  God  created  humanity,  in  His  own 
"image  and  likeness."  As  the  Gospel  constitutes  the 
heavenly  enginery  by  which  this  stupendous  work  is 
executed,  therefore  we  should  all  have  an  intelligent  ap- 
prehension of  this  mighty  mechanism  in  all  its  forms  and 
phases. 

(i.)  The  Sinai  GospEE  of  Hell  and  damnation  for 
all  who  contemptuously  reject  the  redeeming  grace  of  God 
in  Christ,  which  is  received  and  appropriated  by  simple 
faith,  subsequently  to  radical  repentance  and  perfect  sub- 
mission, and  confirmed  by  a  life  of  unfaltering  obedience, 
is  fundamental  in  the  scheme  of  redemption  and  consti- 
tutes God's  stupendous  enginery  of  conviction  through 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  403 

the  medial  of  thunders,  lightnings,  earthquakes,  cyclones 
and  typhoons,  characteristic  of  the  awful  scenes  which 
filled  Mt.  Sinai  with  terrors  so  the  people  all  trembled 
and  quaked  and  dared  not  touch  the  mountain,  and  if  a 
wild  beast  happened  to  run  into  it  he  fell  dead.  And 
even  Moses,  the  mediator  of  the  old  covenant,  did  ex- 
ceedingly fear  and  quake  while  he  stood  between  the 
panic-stricken  multitude  and  the  appalling  manifestations 
of  insulted,  aggravated  and  outraged  Justice.  It  is  im- 
possible to  have  a  real  scriptural  revival  till  you  bring 
down  conviction  from  Heaven,  interpenetrating  the 
hearts  of  the  people  and  resting  on  them  like  a  night- 
mare, and  stalking  before  them  like  an  avenging  spectre. 
This  is  utterly  impossible  without  the  Sinai  Gospel  which 
is  God's  provision  for  that  solid,  real,  radical,  substan- 
tial conviction  which  reveals  Hell  and  the  devil  and 
superinduces  unequivocal  self-condemnation  and  hearty 
approval  of  the  Divine  administration,  condemnatory  of 
the  wicked  to  eternal  damnation. 

(2.)  The  Sinai  Gospel  is  normally  followed  by  the 
Calvary  Gospel,  preaching  the  dying  love  of  Jesus, 
manifested  in  the  great  vicarious  substitutionary  atone- 
ment which  the  Son  of  God,  with  His  own  precious  blood, 
made  for  the  whole  human  race,  so  perfect,  full  and  com- 
plete as  to  eternally  preclude  the  slightest  apology  for  the 
damnation  of  a  solitary  soul.  The  Calvary  Gospel  never 
fails  in  the  justification  and  regeneration  of  every  soul 
whom  a  genuine  Sinai  conviction  has  brought  into  a 
position  for  available  reception  and  appropriation  of  the 
perfect  and  triumphant  efficacy  of  the  vicarious  sub- 
stitutionary atonement,  nor  does  it  fail  in  the  glorious 
transition  of  the  soul  out  of  darkness  into  light,  out  of 


404  Autobiography  op 

Satan's  slavery  into  Cud's  glorious  freedom,  out  of  spir- 
itual death  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  God's  dear  chil- 
dren. 

(3.)  When  people  are  truly  justified  and  radically 
regenerated  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  His  speedy  illuminations 
will  invariably  superinduce  the  profound  realization  of 
the  second  work  of  grace  for  the  eradication  of  the 
hereditary  depravity  which  primarily  dropped  Satan's 
black  lasso  around  the  neck  of  the  soul  and  dragged  it 
away  into  his  filthy  drudgery,  polluting  it  with  the  very 
slime  of  Hell.  The  absence  of  conviction  for  sanctifica- 
tion  is  prima  facie  proof  that  the  regeneration  is  radically 
deficient  and  that  the  soul  is  indulging  a  counterfeit  hope, 
manipulated  by  Satan  and  fostered  by  a  sub  rosa  com- 
promise with  sin.  This  second  great  work  of  grace  is 
secured  invariably  by  faithfully  preaching  the  PENTECOST 
Gospel,  which  never  fails  in  the  desired  results,  unless 
there  is  deficiency  on  the  part  of  its  predecessors,  i.  e., 
the  Sinai  and  Calvary  Gospels. 

(4.)  From  the  days  of  Adam  and  Eve  the  antedilu- 
vian saints  were  constantly  looking  for  the  coming  of 
the  world's  Redeemer  in  mortal  flesh.  For  this  grand 
desideratum  patriarchs,  prophets  and  saints  both  before 
and  after  the  flood  were  in  constant  and  prayerful  an- 
ticipation through  the  long  run  of  the  four  thousand 
years  down  to  the  happy  day  when  Zachariah  and  Eliza- 
beth, Joseph  and  Mary,  Simeon  and  Anna,  joined  the 
angels  in  their  song  of  triumph  over  the  manger  of 
Bethlehem.  Since  our  Lord  bade  the  world  adieu  and 
ascended  up  to  Heaven  from  Mt.  Olivet,  the  same  long- 
ing anticipation  which  had  characterized  the  saints  of 
all  ages  again  settled  down  upon  the  apostles,  New  Tes- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  405 

tament  prophets,  disciples,  martyrs  and  pilgrims,  con- 
stantly and  longingly  looking  for  His  glorious  return  to 
the  earth,  to  dethrone  Satan,  deliver  His  Bride  and  reign 
forever.  Heterodoxy  on  the  coming  of  the  Lord  is  the 
sad  concomitant  of  a  false  hope  in  Christ.  Therefore  the 
Transfiguration  Gospel,  which  keeps  the  saints  con- 
stantly on  tiptoe  watching  and  waiting  for  the  L  >r  I  to 
return  and  transfigure  them,  is  the  grand  bulwark  against 
all  diabolical  intrigues  to  chill  the  ardor,  curtail  the  hopes 
and  superinduce  a  retrogressive  trend  on  the  part  of  sanc- 
tified people,  which  would  soon  vitiate  the  experience, 
entrench  upon  regeneration  without  delay,  undermine 
justification  and  settle  the  poor  victim  of  Satanic  delu- 
sion in  confirmed  apostasy,  the  certain  antecedent  of 
damnation. 

(5.)  Man  is  a  trinity  consisting  of  spirit,  soul  and 
body,  i.  e.,  p  11  at  ma,  psuchee  and  sooma.  The  pneumatical 
and  psychical  glorification  take  place  when  the  soul  eva- 
cuates the  body  and  this  mortal  puts  on  immortality. 
The  soomatical  glorification  takes  place  when  this  mortal 
body  is  transfigured  into  the  similitude  of  our  Savior's 
glorified  body.  When  He  was  transfigured  on  the  moun- 
tain, Moses  and  Elijah  both  appeared  with  Him  invested 
in  their  transfigured  bodies,  the  latter  representative  of 
all  the  living  saints  who  shall  be  on  the  earth  when  our 
Lord  comes  to  take  up  His  Bride  and  who  will  be  trans- 
figured through  the  translation,  whereas  the  former 
represented  all  of  the  buried  saints  who  will  be  trans- 
figured by  the  resurrection. 

(6.)  Our  wonderful,  omnipotent  Savior,  in  His  glor- 
ious vicarious  atonement,  has  not  only  provided  for  the 
glorification  of  humanity,  spirit,  soul  and  body,  but  has 


406  Autobiography  of 

also  included  this  earth,  which  is  to  be  sanctified  by  the 
crematory  fires,  (2  Peter  3)  and  gloriously  renovated  by 
special  Divine  creative  intervention  (Rev.  21).  Thus 
Peter  and  John  each  tell  us  about  the  grand  restitution 
which,  in  glorious  mercy,  awaits  this  earth  when 
the  purgatorial  fires  will  sanctify  out  of  her  all  the  pollu- 
tions with  which  sin  has  affected  land,  sea  and  air,  thus 
eternally  expurgating  every  atom  of  impurity  and  defile- 
ment and  superinducing  the  Edenic  purity  which  ante- 
dated the  fall.  Then  omnipotent  intervention  taking 
this  whole  world,  terrestrial  and  aerial,  in  hand  will  re- 
create it  into  primitive  heavenly  similitude,  restoring  it 
back  to  its  original  place  in  the  plain  of  the  ecliptic, 
where,  resuming  its  own  orbit,  whence  Satan  arrested  it 
in  view  of  augmenting  the  dominions  of  Hell,  deflecting 
it  away  from  comradeship  with  kindred  celestial  spheres, 
he  has  utilized  it  these  six  thousand  years  as  a  prepar- 
atory for  the  pandemonium  in  the  glorious  finale.  This 
wonderful  Savior,  pursuant  to  His  infallible  promise, 
"The  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth,"  Matt.  5:  5,  will  con- 
fer this  beautiful,  sanctified,  renovated,  celestialized 
world  as  a  soldier's  bounty,  and  the  faithful  pilgrims 
who,  through  the  long  roll  of  the  ages,  have  heroically 
confronted  Satan  and  his  stygian  hosts  on  the  battle-field, 
and  proven  true  amid  all  the  temptations  superinduced 
by  Diabolus  and  his  myrmidons,  will  receive  it. 

This  book,  "Glorification,"  is  cheap,  brief,  focalized, 
consolidated,  and  expository  of  these  great  fundamental 
truths  appertaining  to  the  work  of  Christ,  which  should 
be  so  familiar  to  every  witness  for  Jesus  as  to  enable 
us  always  to  have  them  at  our  tongue's  end. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  407 

Section  Six. 
"Incarnation  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

This  book  is  just  the  size  of  the  preceding,  "Glorifi- 
cation," and  contains  precious  truths  exceedingly  vital 
in  the  gracious  economy  and  transcendently  important, 
not  only  to  every  Biblical  student,  but  especially  to  every 
soul  who  would  enjoy  a  clear,  bright,  satisfactory  exper- 
ience, which  is  the  only  certain  guarantee  of  a  home  in 
Heaven.  During  this  probation  the  great  interest  of 
every  soul  is,  in  the  first  place,  real,  actual,  and  unmis- 
takable salvation,  so  confirmed  by  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  as  eternally  to  put  to  flight  all  doubt  and  fear, 
giving  victory  brilliant  as  a  sunburst  and  so  incontestably 
witnessed  by  the  Spirit  as  to  leave  no  room  for  Satan  in 
his  cunning  caprices  to  inject  doubts.  In  the  second 
place  it  is  of  the  greatest  conceivable  importance  to  us 
that  we  shall  never  forfeit  our  inheritance  by  apostasy. 

How  can  we  secure  these  grand  achievements?  We 
answer,  there  is  but  possibly  one  way  and  that  is  con- 
servatism to  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  is  the  Executive  of  the 
Trinity.  The  exegesis  of  our  Savior's  statement  in  refer- 
ence to  the  admissibility  of  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  (Matt.  12:31-32)  arises  as  a  logical  sequence 
from  the  adjustment  of  the  Trinity  to  the  redemptive 
scheme.  The  Father,  in  His  infinite  mercy,  grants  that 
redemption  of  the  human  race,  the  Son  volunteers  to 
procure  the  redemption  by  His  vicarious  death  and  suf- 
ferings, while  the  Holy  Ghost  becomes  the  omnipotent 
Executive.  The  Person,  of  the  Father  sits  upon  the 
throne  of  the  universe,  while  worlds  in  countless  millions 


4o8  Autobiography  o* 

move  responsive  to  His  ipse  dixit.  The  Son  sits  cor- 
onated, enthroned  at  His  right  hand.  The  Holy  Ghost 
is  the  Spirit  of  the  Father,  (Acts  5 :  3,  4)  whom  He  sends 
freely  into  this  world,  omnipotently  executive  of  the 
glorious  plan  of  human  redemption.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
also  the  Spirit  of  the  Son,  (Acts  16:  6-8)  whom  He  freely 
pours  out  on  every  human  soul  who,  duly  and  humbly 
appreciative  of  His  blessed  privileges  in  the  plan  of 
salvation,  enters  into  a  receptive  attitude,  for  convic- 
tion, regeneration,  sanctification,  infilling  and  anointing. 
Hence  the  unpardonableness  of  the  sin  aganist  the  Holy 
Ghost  you  see  follows  as  a  logical  sequence  from  their 
judgment  of  the  redemption  scheme,  between  the  Persons 
of  the  blessed  Trinity;  as  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the  only 
Divine  Personality  on  the  earth  to  whom  probationary 
souls  can  have  access,  contemptuous  rejection  of  Him 
settles  forever  the  problem  of  that  soul's  perdition.  As 
Jesus  said,  "All  sins  against  the  Father  and  the  Son 
can  be  forgiven,  but  the  blasphemy  of  the  Spirit,  (*.  e., 
the  contempt  of  the  Holy  Ghost),  can  never  be  forgiven 
in  this  age  or  in  that  which  is  to  come." 

N.  B.  Beware  of  the  tritheistic  heresy,  i.  e.,  the  recog- 
nition of  three  distinct  Divinities  in  the  Persons  of  the 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  There  is  but  one  God  and 
three  Persons  in  the  Godhead,  the  Father,  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Ghost,  accommodatory  to  the  plan  of  salvation. 
The  pagans  have  the  heresy  of  polytheism,  this  is  many 
gods,  also  pantheism,  which  imputes  divinity  to  every- 
thing. Tritheism  would  simply  fall  in  line  with  these 
paganistic  dogmata,  whereas  Bible  truth  settles  the  doc- 
trine of  monotheism,  i.  e.,  one  God,  be;  possibility 
of  controversy,  at  the  same  time  revealing  and  elucidating 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  409 

the   three   distinct   personalities   of   that   isolated,   omni- 
potent Divinity  beyond  the  possibility  of  cavil. 

The  man  that  rejects  the  Holy  Ghost  can  never  be 
anything  but  a  practical  atheist,  i.  e.,  a  man  without  any 
god.  This  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
the  only  revelator  of  the  Son  (Cor.  12:1-4)  and,  as 
Jesus  repeatedly  says,  the  Son  alone  knows  the  Father 
and  no  human  being  can  know  the  Father  unless  the  Son 
reveals  Him.  Therefore  you  see  clearly  that  the  man 
rejecting  the  Holy  Ghost  never  can  know  either  the  Son 
or  the  Father.  Therefore  you  see  how  everything  apper- 
taining to  the  soul's  salvation  depends  on  conservatism  to 
the  Holy  Ghost.  If  the  worst  sinner  will  heed  His  nor- 
mal illuminations.  He  will  give  him  such  a  conviction 
as  to  put  him  in  a  position  where  he  can  repent  of  his 
sins  and  by  His  help  receive  God's  pardoning'  mercy  in 
Christ,  which  at  once  brings  the  sinner  into  the  king 
where  the  Spirit  gloriously  regenerates  him,  giving  him 
a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit,  and  actually  transforms 
him  from  a  spiritual  corpse  into  a  living  soul.  Then, 
if  the  man  is  true  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Spirit  will  reveal 
the  old  man  of  sin,  still  hiding  in  the  deep  interior  of 
his  heart,  though  awfully  stunned  and  subjugated  in 
regeneration.  With  the  humble  and  submissive  appre- 
ciation of  the  light  thus  given,  by  which  he  is  enabled 
fully  to  consecrate  and  appropriate  by  simple  faith  the 
crucifixion  of  the  old  man,  and  the  expurgation  of  Ins 
hereditary  depravity  by  the  cleansing  blood  of  Jesus  an  1 
the  glorious  baptism  of  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the 
triumphant  Conqueror  on  Mt.  Calvary,  thus  really  and 
truly  he  will  become  the  happy  recipient  of  entire  sancti- 
ftcation.     In  that  case  the  Holy  Ghost  migrates  into  the 


!  ro  Autobiography  o* 

holy  temple  which  He  has  purified  by  the  application  of 
the  precious,  cleansing  blood.  The  soul  thus  sitting  at 
the  feet  of  Jesus  joyfully  receives  His  best  and  greatest 
gift,  the  Holy  Ghost,  (Acts  2:38)  who  comes  into  the 
heart  to  honor  Jesus,  forever  crowning  Him  Lord  of  all 
in  the  heart  and  life,  to  reign  eternally  without  a  rival. 
We  constantly  recognize  the  fact  that  the  Son  of  God 
incarnate  came  into  the  world  when  born  in  Bethlehem. 
Do  you  not  remember  how,  in  the  human  body,  He  came 
to  see  Abraham  when  living  on  the  plain  of  Mamre  and 
actually  abode  in  His  tent  and  ate  dinner  with  him, 
announcing  to  Sarah  the  conception  of  Isaac  and  to 
Abraham  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  the 
ensuing  night?  Christ  was  as  real  to  the  Old  Testament 
saints,  in  their  blessed  Jehovah,  though  excarnate,  as 
He  is  this  day  to  the  New  Testament  disciples  in  the 
glorified  Person  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  After  the  similitude 
in  which  the  Son  of  God  was  incarnated  at  Bethlehem, 
the  Spirit  of  God  was  incarnated  in  the  disciples  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost.  Hitherto  having  operated  on  the 
people  extrinsically,  though  frequently  exceedingly 
powerfully,  e.  g.,  picking  up  Elijah  and  Ezekiel  and  other 
prophets  and  carrying  them  away  and  dropping  them 
down  on  some  lonely  mountain  or  in  a  dreary  valley 
filled  with  dead  men's  bones,  He  now,  in  the  Pentecostal 
dispensation,  comes  into  the  heart  and  abides,  operating 
powerfully  and  delectably,  though  intrinsically,  i.  e., 
from  within,  in  contradistinction  to  His  normal  opera- 
tions from  without,  antecedently  to  Pentecost.  Peter 
tells  us  positively  (Acts  2:  38)  "Repent,  and  each  one  of 
you,  (t.  e.,  each  one  who  has  repented)  be  baptized  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  you  shall  receive  the  Holy 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  411 

Ghost."  His  office  is  to  baptize  His  people  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  fire,  (Matt.  3:11).  Paul  said  to  the 
Ephesian  disciples :  "Have  you  received  the  Holy  Ghost 
having  believed?"  showing  that  it  is  the  privilege  of  all 
believers  to  receive  the  Holy  Ghost.  When  they  an- 
swered in  the  negative,  he  called  them  all  to  the  altar, 
and  put  his  hands  on  them  and  prayed  until  the  Holy 
Ghost  came  on  them  and  they  were  enabled  to  testify. 

As  the  Holy  Ghost  will  not  dwell  in  an  unclean  heart, 
therefore  entire  sanctifkation  is  the  normal  standard  of 
the  Church.  "Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy."  If  we  ever  go 
to  live  with  God  in  Heaven,  we  must  be  holy,  because  He 
is  holy.  Entire  sanctifkation,  i.  e.,  the  expurgation  of 
all  inbred  corruption  under  the  cleansing  blood,  applied 
by  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit,  is  God's  standard  of  Bible 
salvation.  This  sweeps  all  the  barriers  out  of  the  way- 
preparatory  to  God's  return  to  His  temple,  whence  He 
has  been  alienated  by  sin.  Therefore  when  Jesus  gives 
you  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  always  cleanses  the  heart  from 
all  unrighteousness,  and  then  comes  in  to  abide  forever. 

As  God's  work  is  perfect  in  human  redemption,  there- 
fore He  makes  no  provision  for  sin.  As  Satan,  an  ir- 
reconcilable enemy,  is  infinitely  stronger  than  we,  when 
God  gives  us  this  wonderful  uttermost  salvation.  He 
always  heads  off  the  devil  effectually  by  committing  His 
temple,  (the  sanctified  heart)  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  who 
takes  up  His  abode  in  it  forever.  Then  you  are  as  sure 
of  Heaven  as  if  you  were  in  it,  if  you  remain  true  and 
loyal  to  the  indwelling  Holy  Ghost.  This  follows  as  a 
legitimate  sequence,  from  the  simple  fact  that  the  blessed 
Holy  Spirit  is  more  than  a  match  for  the  combined 
powers  of  earth  and  Hell;  Satan  and  all  his  hosts  assault 


4i2  Autobiography 

in  vain,  while  the  blessed  Comforter  dwells  within.  The 
thing  we  want  is  to  settle  matters  for  Heaven  and  keep 
them  settled  forever.     The  way  to  do  that  is  to  secure 

the  constant  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  i.  e.,  have 
Him  come  and  incarnate  Himself  in  your  heart.  This 
He  is  anxious  to  do,  thus  to  give  you  perfect  rest  and 
constant  victory  forever;  from  the  simple  fact  that  He 
assuredly  conquered  Satan  and  all  his  myrmidons  ex- 
Carnate  and  incarnate,  world  without  end.  Therefore 
this  book,  "The  Incarnation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  will 
prove  infinitely  valuable  to  you,  nut  only  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  a  bona  fide  and  triumphant  Ghristian  experience, 
but  in  the  retention  of  the  same  to  all  eternity. 

Section  Seven. 

"Church — Bride — Kingdom." 

This  is  a  book  I  wrote  by  special  request  of  our 
sainted  Brother  Knapp.  It  not  only  expound-  all  of  these 
blessed  institutions  of  God's  transcendent  and  redeeming 
ways,  but  contrasts  them  either  with  the  other  and  for- 
tifies the  reader  against  the  confusion  which  so  exten- 
sively prevails,  not  only  in  the  laity,  but  the  clergy  as 
well,  relative  to  their  entity,  institutionality,  prerogative 
and  availability. 

Church  and  Kingdom  are  substantially  identical,  ex- 
cept the  fact  that  the  former  consists  only  of  the  souls 
who,  responsive  to  the  call  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  have  come 
out  from  the  world  and  identified  themselves  with  God. 
therefore,  it  has  an  objective  signification ;  whereas  the 
latter  comprises  simply  the  souls,  terrestrial  and  celes- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  413 

tial,  who  sustained  their  relation  of  loyal  obedience  and 
c<  nservatism  to  the  Divine  sovereignty.  Therefore  you 
perceive  that  the  subjective  signification  of  the  word  in- 
cludes the  constituant  membership  of  our  heavenly  King 
in  all  worlds.  Our  Savior  (in  John  3:5)  clearly  and 
forever  settles  the  question  that  the  spiritual  birth  is 
absolutely  necessary  for  membership  in  the  Lord's  king- 
dom. 

The  same  is  equally  true  of  the  Church  i.  e.,  the  ce- 
de sia,  from  eh,  out,  and  klcoo,  to  call — hence,  the  called 
out  people.  All  these  have  left  Satan's  kingdom  and 
crossed  the  line  into  the  heavenly.  Therefore  the  testi- 
mony of  our  Savior  settles  the  question  that  they  are 
born  from  above. 

The  world  is  flooded  with  false  doctrines  in  reference 
to  both  the  Church  and  the  Kingdom ;  multitudinous 
claimants  on  all  sides  roaring  themselves  hoarse  with  the 
vociferous  appeals,  "Come  unto  us  and  let  us  immerse 
you  in  water,  for  this  is  the  door  into  the  Church," 
whereas  our  blessed  Christ  says  in  John  10:  "/  am  the 
door,"  therefore  neither  baptism  nor  church  rites  of  any 
kind  constitute  the  door,  but  Christ  Himself.  Neither 
is  any  preacher  the  porter ;  only  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  sole 
Revelator  of  Christ,  can  show  you  the  door  and  lead 
von  in  it.  It  is  said  that  there  are  now  six  thousand 
sects  and  denominations  in  Christendom,  each  one  claim- 
ing to  be  the  true  Church,  thus  bewildering  the  poor 
Hellward-bound  millions  almost  as  confusedly  as  the 
Brahman  priests  of  India  do  their  devotees,  telling  them 
that  there  are  three  hundred  and  thirty  millions  of  gods. 
Neither  the  Church  nor  the  Kingdom  is  any  sect,  denom- 
ination or  ecclesiasticism,  but  the  body  of  Christ,  (Eph. 


414  Autobiography  of 

1:23).  Christ  is  God,  and  consequently  a  pure  spirit- 
uality. A  spiritual  head  with  a  material  body  would 
be  a  monstrosity.  Therefore  the  Church  is  a  pure  spirit- 
uality like  her  Divine  head.  While  in  this  world  these 
human  spirits  all  dwell  in  bodies  which  are  conventionally 
identified  with  the  Church  antecedently  to  the  transfig- 
uration glory,  which  will  eternally  eliminate  mortality 
and  confer  spirituality,  the  work  homogeneous  with  the 
transformation  of  our  spirits,  wrought  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  regeneration  and  sanctification.  Therefore,  anteced- 
ently to  the  glorious  transfiguration,  the  human  body 
is  neither  a  member  of  the  Church  nor  a  citizen  of  the 
Kingdom,  except  in  a  modified,  conventional  sense. 
Therefore  it  will  never  really  be  known  who  does  con- 
stitute the  mystical  spiritual  body  of  Christ  till  the  sons 
of  God  are  made  manifest  in  His  glory,  (Col.  3:3). 

The  supernatural  birth  makes  you  a  member  of  God's 
Church  and  a  citizen  of  His  Kingdom,  just  as  the 
infants  in  the  United  States  are  counted  in  the  census 
and  signify  as  much  in  the  citizenship  as  the  adults, 
although  they  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
government  till  they  reach  majority.  In  a  similar  man- 
ner regeneration  makes  you  a  citizen  of  the  Kingdom, 
but  during  your  minority  you  have  no  voice  in  the  gov- 
ernment, (Gal.  4:4),  "But  I  say  unto  you  so  long  time 
as  the  heir  is  an  infant  he  differs  from  a  slave  as  to  noth- 
ing, even  though  being  lord  of  all,  but  is  under  tutors 
and  guardians  until  the  time  appointed  by  the  father 
.  .  .  ."  And  verse  7,  "So  thou  art  no  longer  a  slave 
but  a  son,  and  if  a  son  indeed,  an  heir  thro"?h  God." 
Here  we  have  a  contrast  between  infancy  :    ;  age 

in  the  Kingdom.    The  minority  is  the  servii         riad  and 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  415 

the  majority  the  filial.  Now  this  is  the  same  person  all 
the  way  through,  the  difference  simply  consisting  in  his 
relation  to  the  Divine  government,  before  sanctification 
being  a  servant  and  afterward  a  son,  both  characters 
existing  contemporaneously  throughout,  but  during  min- 
ority the  servile  predominating  and  after  majority  the 
filial. 

We  have  the  same  facts  set  forth  in  Heb.  13 :  14,  "For 
every  one  partaking  of  milk  is  unskillful  in  the  zvord  of 
righteousness,  because  he  is  a  babe,  for  solid  food  is 
for  the  perfect  who  have  their  senses  exercised  by  use 
unto  the  discernment  both  of  the  good  and  of  the  evil." 
Here  we  see  the  same  two  classes  again  contrasted  by 
the  phrases  nelpios,  an  infant,  and  teleios,  an  adult,  i.  e., 
a  perfect  man.  The  Apostle  here  says  the  infant  is  un- 
skillful in  the  word  of  righteousness,  i.  e.,  he  does  not 
well  understand  how  to  apply  it  to  himself  or  to  others, 
while  the  adult,  or  the  perfect  man,  as  the  Greek  says, 
has  his  spiritual  and  intellectual  senses  developed  by  use 
so  that  he  can  discriminate  between  the  good  and  the  evil. 

We  have  the  same  contrast  developed  in  the  parable 
of  the  virgins  who  represent  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  on 
the  earth.  You  remember  how  they  all  alike  set  out  with 
lighted  lamps  to  meet  the  Bridegroom,  but  afterward 
five  of  them  concluded  that  security  demanded  that  they 
should  lay  in  a  supply  of  oil  for  coming  emergencies, 
the  other  five  thinking  that  it  was  not  necessary,  as  the 
lamps  were  burning  very  nicely  and  they  were  getting 
along  real  well.  Eventually  the  Bridegroom  came  and 
they  all  started  to  meet  Him.  Now  while  the  five  who 
had  laid  in  the  supply  of  oil  had  no  trouble  whatever, 
you  remember  that  the  five  who  were  delinquent  in  this 


4*6  Autobiography  of 

respect  utterly  forfeited  their  place  in  the  Bridehood. 
There  is  no  intimation  that  they  lost  their  place  in  the 
Kingdom.  The  English  Version  statement,  "Our  lamps 
are  gone  out,"  led  all  of  the  old  commentators  astray 
on  the  subject,  relegating  them  as  apostates.  The  true 
reading,  "Our  lamps  are  going  out,"  indicates  a  low  state 
of  grace,  normal  to  the  unsanctified,  but  it  is  utterly  in- 
compatible with  the  conclusion  that  their  state  was  grace- 
less. The)'  were  still  citizens  of  the  Kingdom,  but  never 
had  been  members  of  the  Bridehood. 

I  have  heard  preachers  contend  stoutly  for  the  identity 
of  the  Church  and  the  Bride.  This  is  a  mistake  which 
you  will  all  readily  see.  Regeneration  makes  you  a  cit- 
izen of  the  Kingdom,  (John  3:  3)  identifies  you  with  the 
body  of  Christ,  and  makes  you  a  member  of  the  Church, 
(Eph.  1:23),  but  assuredly  does  not  make  you  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Bridehood,  whose  pre-eminent  signification  is 
the  idea  of  wedlock.  All  brides  are  married  and  always 
imply  the  existence  of  the  groom,  the  cognomenal  coun- 
terpart, somewhere,  either  present  or  absent.  It  is  one 
experience  to  be  born  into  the  Kingdom  and  an  infinitely 
different  one  to  get  married  to  the  Son  of  the  King. 
The  latter  positively  implies  adultage,  as  infants  are  not 
marriageable.  Our  Lord  is  coming  back  to  this  world 
for  His  Bride  only.  He  is  certain  duly  to  care  for  the 
infants,  both  spiritual  and  physical,  but  they  are  not 
members  of  His  Bridehood.  Those  who  enjoy  the  study 
of  the  sweet,  precious  Word  and  are  delighted  with  the 
erudition  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Author  and  Revelator 
of  the  deep  things  of  God,  would  be  much  edified  study- 
ing this  book,  "Church — Bride — Kingdom." 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  417 

Section  Eight. 

The  Booklets. 

These  are  twenty-seven  in  number,  all  directly  ex- 
pository of  the  great  and  absorbing  theme,  "Holiness  to 
the  Lord,"  which  floods  the  Bible  from  the  Alpha  of 
Genesis  to  the  Omega  of  Revelation.  These  booklets 
contain  about  fifty  to  one  hundred  pages  each  and  are 
all  bound  in  paper  and  sell  for  only  one  dime  per  copy. 
Therefore  you  see  you  can  actually  command  a  splendid 
library  with  the  small  sum  of  two  dollars  and  a  half. 
When  I  graduated  from  college,  having  been  a  student 
twenty-one  years  (from  five  to  twenty-six  years  of  age), 
I  proceeded  at  once  to  ransack  all  of  the  world  for  books 
and  gathered  up  a  library  at  the  cost  of  one  thousand 
dollars,  much  of  it  consisting  of  costly  works  sent  from 
Germany  and  England.  The  Lord,  in  His  mercy,  has  let 
me  write  forty-eight  books  and  booklets.  I  honestly 
believe  that  if  these  had  been  put  into  my  hands  instead 
of  the  one  thousand  dollar  library,  they  would  have  done 
me  more  good  than  that  wagon  load  of  books.  While 
many  of  my  books  are  large,  containing  three  to  six 
hundred  pages  and  substantially  bound  in  cloth,  the 
twenty-seven  booklets,  about  which  we  now  give  you  a 
word  of  information,  cost  but  a  dime  per  copy  and  there- 
fore amount  in  total  cost  to  but  vefy  little ;  the  whole 
sum  necessary  to  secure  the  entire  library  would  probably 
be  in  the  neighborhood  of  $15.00.  God,  in  His  mercy, 
blessed  me  with  splendid  educational  facilities,  so  that 
I  read  English  fluently  at  the  age  of  six,  and  after  years 
of   toil   actually   used   the   New   Testament   scriptures   in 


418  Autobiography  of 

thirteen  languages  and  dialects  and  the  Old  Testament  in 
all  of  the  important  classical  languages.  I  have  been  an 
assiduous  student  all  my  life  and  lost  comparatively  no 
time  sowing  wild  oats  in  the  realms  of  Diabolus,  like 
most  people,  and  having  spent  fifty-three  years  preaching 
the  Gospel  and  teaching  not  only  the  Bible,  but  the  en- 
tire collegiate  course,  I  am  certainly  very  anxious  to 
give  the  rising  generation  the  full  benefit  of  my  seventy- 
three  years  on  the  earth  and  all  the  additional  remnant 
which  God,  in  His  infallible  providence  and  superabound- 
ing  mercy,  shall  add  to  my  preceding  years,  which  already 
begin  to  render  me  somewhat  an  example  of  human 
longevity. 

The  booklets  are 

(i.)  "Spiritual  Gifts  and  Graces."  When  first 
written  this  produced  a  general  and  wide-spread  sensa- 
tion among  the  scholars  of  Christendom,  who  had  aqui- 
esced  in  the  conclusion  that  all  of  these  gifts  had  left 
the  world  when  the  Apostles  went  to  Heaven.  Conse- 
quently this  book  was  really  a  sunburst  on  the  spiritual 
people  of  the  different  denominations  who  seized  it  with 
universal  avidity  and  devoured  it  with  insatiable  voracity, 
seeing  clearly  and  confessedly  its  pure  Biblical  ortho- 
doxy, and  at  the  same  time  recognizing  the  glorious 
feasability  of  receiving  and  appropriating  these  gifts  and 
graces  like  the  people  of  the  apostolic  age.  We  all  must 
have  the  nine  graces,  love,  joy,  peace,  longsuffering, 
gentleness,  goodness,  meekness,  faith  and  holiness,  (Gal. 
5 :  22)  in  order  that  we  ourselves  may  be  saved.  There- 
fore you  see  that  the  nine  graces  are  an  absolute  sine 
qua  non,  which  none  of  us  under  any  circumstances  can 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  419 

afford  to  forfeit  as  we  must  get  to  Heaven  whether  other 
people  do  or  not. 

Meanwhile  the  nine  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  wis- 
dom, knowledge,  faith,  gifts  of  healing,  the  workings  of 
dynamite,  discernment  of  spirits,  prophecy,  languages 
and  interpretations,  constitute  the  Christian's  panoply 
by  which  we  conquer  Satan's  host  and  rescue  the  lost 
millions  from  sin,  death  and  endless  woe.  You  see,  then, 
if  we  have  not  the  graces  we  will  lose  our  souls,  while 
if  we  do  not  utilize  the  gifts,  though  with  the  graces  we 
get  to  Heaven,  we  will  have  no  stars  to  shine  in  our 
crown  for  the  angels  to  admire  through  the  ages  of 
eternity  and,  as  some  say,  will  have  to  go  bare-headed. 

(2.)  " Victory."  This  book  has  received  a  wonder- 
ful circulation  and  God  has  everywhere  set  His  seal  upon 
the  truth.  Bound  in  cloth,  it  only  costs  twenty-five  cents, 
but  in  paper  it  ranks  as  a  dime  book  along  with  the 
twenty-six  dime  booklets  in  paper.  It  means  just  what  it 
says,  "Victory  over  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil." 
It  tells  you  the  Lord's  secret  of  getting  it  and  keeping  it. 
Its  circulation  has  gone  up  to  forty  or  fifty  thousand,  and 
it  is  still  going  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  It  was  pub- 
lished early  in  the  Holiness  Movement.  I  have  known 
many  preachers  to  attribute  their  sanctification  to  reading 
it.  Like  all  of  these  small  books  it  is  characteristic  of 
multum  in  parvo,  "much  in  little,"  and  evidently  adapted 
to  laboring  people. 

(3.)  "Holy  Land."  This  book  is  the  size  and  price 
of  the  two  preceding,  twenty-five  cents,  bound  in  cloth, 
and  in  paper  one  dime.  It  gives  yon  an  account  of 
my  first  journey  to  the  Holy  Land.  It  has  received  quite 
an  extensive  circulation  and  been  read  by  myriads  with 


420  A  I  ToniOGRAPHY    OF 

great  delight.     Children  and  young  people  are  especially 
carried  away  with  it. 

(4.)  "Divine  Healing,"  gives  this  precious  truth  a 
clear,  terse,  brief,  scriptural  exegesis,  such  as  the  people 
need  to  push  them  in  reference  to  their  blessed  privilege? 
in  our  wonderful  Christ,  who  is  the  Savior  of  the  body 
as  well  as  of  the  soul,  having  commissioned  the  twelve 
and  also  the  seventy  whom  He  sent  out  not  only  to 
preach  the  Gospel  and  cast  out  the  demons,  but  to  heal 
the  sick. 

(5.)  "Deeper  Things."  This  booklet  is  devoted  es- 
pecially and  pre-eminently  to  the  elucidation  of  the  deep 
things  of  God,  after  which  all  truly  saved  and  sanctified 
people  do  sigh  and  long,  importunately  pleading,  "Lord, 
let  me  down  into  the  deeper  depths  of  Thine  own  blessed 
and  unsearchable  Divinity ;  broaden  me  out  in  grander 
and  progressive  longitudes  in  the  Divine  life ;  and  let  me 
climb  into  loftier  altitudes,  that  I  may  rise  so  high  above 
transitory  things  that  all  of  Satan's  mountains  which  he 
can  rear  to  obstruct  my  race  for  glory  shall  dwindle 
into  mole  hills,  so  that  I  may  actually  overstep  them 
without  an  effort." 

(6.)  "The  Victory  oe  Christ."  This  booklet  de- 
scribes our  Lord's  wonderful  descension  into  Hades, 
Eph-  4:8-10,  1  Peter  3:19:20,  Luke  23:43,  Matt.  12: 
40  and  other  corroborative  scriptures  with  some  im- 
portant Old  Testament  references,  setting  forth  the  fact 
.that  when  Jesus  expired  on  the  crose  instead  of  going 
up  to  His  Father,  He  went  down  into  Hades,  the  un- 
expected herald  of  His  own  victory  achieved  on  the  cross 
which  He  proclaimed  to  all  the  inmates  of  the  pande- 
monium, signally  triumphing  over  them.     Then  crossing 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  421 

the  chasm  impassable  to  finite  beings,  Luke  16:26,  He 
entered  that  intermediate  Paradise,  denominated  "Abra- 
ham's Bosom,"  v.  24,  met  the  thief  and  all  of  the  Old 
Testament  saints  there  awaiting"  Him,  spent  the  Sabbath 
with  them,  and  with  the  incoming  week  evacuating  that 
Paradise,  led  them  up  to  Jerusalem,  received  His  body 
out  of  the  sepulchre,  and  after  forty  days  ascended  into 
Heaven,  accompanied  by  the  mighty  host  of  Old  Testa- 
ment saints  who  tarried  with  Him  during  the  forty  days, 
invisible  because  disembodied. 

(7.)  "God's  Nazarite."  In  this  valuable  booklet  you 
will  find  the  beautiful  character  of  the  Old  Testament 
holiness  people  lucidly  expounded,  much  to  your  edifica- 
tion. We  need  all  the  helps  we  can  get  from  both  Tes- 
taments to  edify  us  in  the  deep  things  of  God,  to  qual- 
ify us  to  travel  the  King's  highway  of  holiness,  and  to 
fortify  us  against  the  multitudinous  temptations  incident 
to  all  pilgrims  who  undertake  to  tread  the  narrow  way. 

(8.)  "Demonology"  gives  you  the  history  of  Satan, 
fallen  Lucifer,  and  the  origin  of  all  his  mrymidons,  the 
devils  and  demons.  It  also  fortifies  you  against  their 
insidious  metamorphisms,  playing  the  angel  and  even 
playing  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  thus  deceiving  multitudes 
of  people  and  leading  away  mighty  men  and  women 
whom  God  has  blessed  and  made  to  shine  in  the  front 
ranks  of  the  holiness  people.  None  are  too  great  and 
strong  to  be  caught  by  the  fugitive  lassoes  of  these 
minions  of  the  pit.  Therefore  we  cannot  overestimate 
the  value  of  everything  calculated  to  awaken  and  fortify 
us  against  these  subtle  intrigues  of  Satan,  devils  and 
demons.  To  our  sorrow  we  see  their  fatal  work  whither- 
soever we  turn  our  gaze  and  are  constrained  to  exclaim 


422  Autobiography  op 

in  deepest  grief,  "How  have  the  mighty  fallen!"  How 
we  bewail  the  sad  contemplation  of  master  spirits  in 
the  Movement,  sidetracked,  derailed  and  ditched  through 
the  chicanery  of  the  evil  spirits  which  throng  the  air,  so 
cunning  and  adroit  in  playing  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the 
angel  on  the  unwary  saints.  See  the  myriads  of  Spir- 
itualists all  thus  led  away  by  evil  spirits  playing  brother, 
sister,  father,  mother,  friend,  etc. 

(9.)  "Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  This  is  the 
companion  volume  of  "Demonology,"  which  you  observe 
immediately  preceding,  and  important  by  way  of  fortifica- 
tion against  the  demons  which  are  after  all  the  people  in 
the  world  without  a  solitary  exception,  and  doing  their 
utmost  to  deceive  them  and  lead  them  to  ruin.  Astron- 
omy has  developed  the  existence  of  one  billion,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  millions  of  worlds,  constituting  the 
celestial  universe.  Revelation  twelve  tells  us  that  when 
the  Dragon  was  driven  out  of  Heaven,  his  tail  drew 
one-third  of  the  stars,  i.  c,  in  the  revolt  of  Lucifer  the 
archangel,  one-third  of  all  the  mighty  hosts  of  celestial 
intelligence  followed  in  that  sad  and  awful  revolt,  having 
forfeited  their  probation.  You  are  astonished  at  this 
conclusion.  Why  not  be  astonished  at  what  you  see  in 
this  world  where,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Jesus, 
the  proportion  who  fail  to  sustain  their  probation  and 
make  their  way  to  Heaven  is  greater.     Matt.  7:  13,  14. 

With  this  alarming  testimony  of  Jesus  in  reference 
to  the  paucity  of  the  saved,  we  should  all  take  the  utmost 
heed  and  be  constantly  on  our  watch-towers.  You  must 
remember  that  God  never  created  devils,  demons  nor 
sinners,  but  all  of  the  fallen  angels  now  verify  the  un- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  423 

happy  character  and  abide  the  awful  doom  of  the  for- 
mer; whereas,  the  wicked  millions  of  earth  and  Hell  are 
but  the  evolution  of  Adam  and  Eve,  whom  He  created 
perfect  and  upright.  Among  these  twenty-seven  book- 
lets, which  you  get  for  one  dime  per  copy,  these  two  i.  e., 
"Demonology"  and  "The  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit," 
which  have  always  been  circulated  in  pairs,  as  they  repre- 
sent the  opposite  sides  of  the  battle-field  which  envelopes 
the  whole  earth,  are  of  transcendent  importance. 

(10.)  "Why  Will  Ye  Die?"  Ezek.  33:11.  This 
booklet  is  an  appeal  to  the  unconverted  and  exceedingly 
appropriate  for  extensive  promiscuous  distribution  by 
way  of  warning  the  wicked  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come.  In  this  respect  it  stands  isolated  in  the  entire 
catalogue  of  my  writings,  as  all  the  balance  are  more 
directly  to  Christians  in  the  interest  of  sanctification  and 
subsequent  holy  living  and  especially  the  great  enter- 
prise of  universal  evangelization,  which,  in  the  economy 
of  God's  Kingdom,  becomes  the  glorious  privilege  of  all 
who  have  the  honored  privilege  of  a  place  in  the  sacra- 
mental host  marching  under  the  blood-stained  banner  of 
the  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ. 

(11.)  "The  Sabbath."  You  need  this  book  espec- 
ially to  qualify  you  to  meet  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists, 
who  are  dispersed  throughout  this  continent  very  widely 
and  are  a  very  enterprising  people  in  the  interest  of  their 
sect,  whose  constant  battle-cry  is  "The  Mosaic  Sabbath." 
They  befog  the  consciences  of  multitudes  who  are  sin- 
cerely seeking  after  light  and  truth  and,  in  the  integrity 
of  their  hearts,  are  endeavoring  to  keep  the  command- 
ments of  God  and  do  His  will  on  earth  as  the  angels  do 
it  in  Heaven.    They  tell  them  boldly  and  unhesitatingly 


424  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF 

that  Saturday  is  the  only  true  Sabbath  and  that  our 
Sunday  in  the  Pope's  counterfeit,  assuring  the  people  that 
he  made  the  change.  The  innocent  rank  and  file  of 
Christendom  look  upon  the  papacy  as  running  far  back 
near  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  age,  which  is  quite 
a  mistake,  as  there  never  was  a  pope  till  A.  D.  606,  when 
Procas,  the  king  of  Italy,  crowned  Boniface  III,  Bishop 
of  Rome,  Supreme  Pontificate  of  all  the  churches,  and 
he  was  the  first  Pope.  You  will  see  in  this  booklet, 
clearly  proved  by  Scripture  and  history,  that  the  disciples 
kept  the  first  day  of  the  week  without  a  break  from  the 
resurrection  of  the  Lord  and  that  the  Gentiles  never  did 
keep  the  Mosaic  Sabbath  and  were  not  required  to  do  it, 
the  Jewish  wing  of  the  Church  having  kept  both  days  till 
they  evanesced  and  the  Church  became  all  Gentile. 

The  trouble  with  the  influence  of  these  Seventh  Day 
Adventists  is  not  simply  their  fight  against  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  but  their  infidelity.  It  is  not  generally  known 
that  they  are  actually  downright  infidels  of  the  material- 
istic order,  actually  repudiating  all  spirituality,  even  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  They  are  called  "Soul-Sleepers." 
but  it  is  a  mistake.  They  do  not  believe  you  have  any 
soul  to  sleep.  The  only  immortality  which  they  allow 
is  that  of  the  body  of  believers  in  the  resurrection,  where- 
as the  wicked  are  forever  annihilated.  These  people  use 
the  day  question  to  lasso  your  conscience  and  draw  you 
in  with  them.  Then,  at  their  leisure,  they  lead  you  awav 
into  infidelity  and  freeze  you  to  death.  This  booklet 
should  be  circulated  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  fortify 
honest  people  against  that  pestilential  influence. 

(12.)      "Satan's    Side-tracks."     This   booklet   pro- 
ceeds to  show  up  ten  prominent  side-tracks  which  Satan, 


Ri:v.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  425 

through  his  false  prophets  and  counterfeit  preachers, 
is  now  currently  bringing  into  availability.  He  is  so 
cunning  and  adroit  that,  slipping  in  like  the  vampire  at 
midnight,  he  manages  to  lay  down  a  side-track  which  is 
so  parallel  with  the  main  track  that  unanointed  eyes  will 
not  identify  it.  Then  he  has  us  run  on  the  same  direc- 
tion a  considerable  time  and  deflects  so  gradually  that 
the  travelers  do  not  detect  it  but  think  they  are  still  on 
the  King's  highway,  till  eventually  it  gets  completely 
turned  around  and  runs  directly  back  in  the  opposite 
direction.  Still  Satan  is  on  board  dressed  in  railroad 
uniform  and  with  great  care  and  adroitness  playing  the 
Holy  Ghost,  while  his  myrmidons  so  cunningly  play  the 
angel  that  you  think  all  is  well  and  the  trainmen  are  all 
in  their  places.  Meanwhile  you  are  looking  for  the  "New 
Jerusalem"  and  expecting  to  see  your  glorified  relatives 
and  friends  on  the  platform  to  greet  you,  when  your 
train  runs  into  the  union  depot.  But  finally,  when  it  is 
eternally  too  late,  you  wake  up  to  the  fact  that  you  are 
on  the  wrong  train  and  in  the  company  of  devils  and 
have  actually  reached  Hell. 

(13.)  "No-Hellism."  This  booklet  shows  up  the 
Bible  doctrine  of  a  real  Hell  of  fire  and  brimstone  clearly 
and  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt,  and  gives  you  over- 
whelming scriptural  refutations  of  the  boasted  theories 
manipulated  by  the  No-Hellites,  i.  c,  Millennial  Dawners, 
Seventh  Day  Adventists  and  Universalists.  When  we 
consider  the  lamentable  fact  that  the  Sinai  Gospel  of 
Hell  and  damnation  for  the  finally  impenitent  has  actually 
gone  out  of  the  pulpit,  it  is  high  time  that  we  all  rally 
to  the  rescue  of  this  great  fundamental  Bible  truth. 
Where  the  Sinai  Gospel  is  not  preached  conviction  evan- 


426  Autobiography  off 

eces  from  the  community  and  wickedness  in  every  form 
and  phase  comes  in  like  a  flood.  I  have  heard  a  great 
holiness  evangelist,  preaching  in  the  largest  camp-meet- 
ing in  the  world,  say  that  he  read  several  books  on  future 
punishment  which  cost  him  $1.00  apiece,  and  afterwards 
got  more  light  and  help  on  the  subject  by  reading  this 
dime  booklet  than  all  of  them.  Oh,  how  we  need  mil- 
lions to  scatter  throughout  all  Christendom  to  wake  up 
the  people  before  they  awaken  in  Hell !  So  wicked  is 
the  human  heart  that  all  need  the  Hell-scare  to  bring 
them  to  a  real,  genuine  repentance,  which  is  the  only 
antecedent  of  that  experimental  salvation  and  radical 
holiness  which  is  the  only  guarantee  against  damnation. 
(14.)  "Matrimony."  This  is  the  only  institution 
which  survived  the  fall  and  came  down  to  brighten  this 
dark,  fallen  world  with  a  perpetual  souvenir  of  the  lost 
Paradise.  Where  this  institution  is  not  held  sacred  and 
appreciated  in  the  fear  of  God,  Christian  civilization 
topples  and  falls.  There  is  so  much  reckless  deportment 
in  connection  with  the  matrimonial  relation,  and  horrific, 
diabolical  abuse  of  this  sacred  institution,  that  it  is  trans- 
cendency important  that  we  give  special  attention  to 
this  fundamental  Bible  truth.  Whereas  Judaism  was 
infantile  Christianity,  Moses  provided  for  divorcements 
in  case  of  irreconcilable  uncongeniality  and  incompati- 
bility, which  disqualified  them  to  live  together  in  peace 
and  harmony.  But  our  Savior  swept  all  of  that  away 
and  restricted  divorcement  to  the  sin  of  adultery  alone, 
which,  in  its  very  nature,  destroys  the  matrimonial  unity, 
which  is  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  institution.  In 
that  case  the  divorcement  is  only  for  the  protection  of 
the  innocent  party.    The  wicked  usurpation  of  this  priv- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  427 

liege  is  awfully  condemnatory  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
all  good  people.  Yet  the  wicked  have  the  audacity  reck- 
lessly to  avail  themselves  of  the  divorcement  privilege 
for  the  perpetration  of  the  vilest  sins.  The  signification 
of  divorcement  has  been  wofully  misunderstood,  arising 
from  the  erroneous  translation  of  Matt.  5 :  31,  32,  "But 
it  has  been  said  whosoever  may  put  azvay  his  wife  let 
him  give  to  her  a  divorcement.  But  I  say  unto  you  that 
every  man  putting  away  his  wife,  except  for  the  cause 
of  fornication,  makes  her  commit  adultery,  and  whoso- 
ever may  marry  the  cast  off  woman  commits  adultery." 
In  the  English  Version,  the  Greek  word  apolelumenen, 
which  means  "the  cast  off  woman,"  is  erroneously  ren- 
dered the  "divorced  woman,"  which  is  positively  untrue. 
Great  confusion  and  domestic  mal-administration  have 
supervened  from  this  incorrect  reading.  The  Savior  did 
not  say  that  the  man  who  marries  a  divorced  woman  com- 
mitted adultery;  but  you  see  at  once  the  clearness  of  the 
case,  when  he  marries  her  who  had  been  driven  away 
by  her  husband  and  is  still  his  wedded  wife.  They  had 
a  quarrel  and  perhaps  he  whipped  her  and  drove  her 
from  home,  but  she  had  not  yet  been  divorced,  there- 
fore, of  course,  the  man  marrying  her  is  guilty  of 
adultery  in  its  most  literal  sense.  Whereas  in  case  the 
woman  had  been  divorced  a  man  would  have  a  perfect 
right  to  marry  her  and  would  not  be  guilty  of  adultery, 
because  the  end  for  which  the  divorcement  is  given  is  to 
liberate  the  innocent  party  for  another  marriage,  ad 
libitum.  God  believed  in  matrimony.  It  is  His  own 
institution  and  prevents  more  sin  than  anything  else. 
Divorcement  (for  sin  of  adulterv)  is  also  God's  insti- 
tution.    It  is  right  and  proper  in  its  place,  and  not  to 


428  Autobiography  ofl 

be  wickedly  usurped,  but  only  used  at  the  option  of  the 
innocent  party.  N.  B.  God's  work  is  not  shoddy  like 
man's.  When  He  grants  a  divorcement,  it  utterly  rati- 
fies the  preceding  nullification  of  the  matrimonial  cov- 
enant, which  covenant  unified  the  parties  till  destroyed 
by  the  sin  of  adultery. 

Our  Savior's  word  for  "divorcement"  is  apostasion, 
i.  e.,  apostasy,  now  a  plain  English  word,  whose  meaning 
is  well  known.  A  backslider  is  one  who  has  lost  ground 
and  depreciated  spiritually,  but  has  not  necessarily  for- 
feited his  justification.  When  this  takes  place,  he  has 
crossed  the  line  and  has  gotten  back  in  Satan's  kingdom 
where  he  was  before  his  conversion  and  is  now  an  apos- 
tate and  will  have  to  get  converted  again,  justified  and 
regenerated,  or  drop  into  the  Hell  of  the  apostate  along 
with  Judas  Iscariot.  Of  course  the  divorcements  given 
by  the  courts  are  of  no  value  unless  there  is  a  scriptural 
guaranty.  A  second  marriage  without  a  scriptural 
divorcement  is  utterly  null  and  void,  leaving  the 
parties  living  in  adultery.  In  that  case  they  should 
separate  and  repent,  but  of  course  will  never  be 
free  to  marry  another  unless  the  truly  wedded  consort 
should  be  removed  by  death.  It  is  of  the  greatest  and 
most  vital  importance  that  all  people  should  understand 
the  true  signification  of  Christian  wedlock  and  also  that 
of  the  scriptural  divorcement,  which  invariably  returns  the 
innocent  party  back  to  celibacy  where  matrimony  found 
him  or  her.  We  should  all  encourage  matrimony  in  its 
right  place  as  it  is  a  most  effectual  breakwater  against 
sin.  Celibacy  through  life  is  only  justifiable  when  util- 
ized in  the  interest  of  God's  kingdom,  (Matt.  19:  12). 

(15.)     "Signs  of  His  Coming."    This  booklet,  con- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  429 

taining  about  fifty  or  sixty  pages,  is  a  valuable  compen- 
dium of  prophetic  data  which  you  will  find  exceedingly 
convenient  for  reference,  and  to  use  when  you  desire  to 
impart  information  on  this  great  and  mighty  truth  of 
our  Savior's  return  to  this  world,  which  is  certainly  very 
nigh.  All  the  chronologies  concur  in  the  conclusion 
that  we  are  certainly  living  in  the  time  of  the  end  of  the 
Gentile  age,  and  great  and  wonderful  events  are  going 
to  transpire  whose  adumbrations  are  strikingly  ominous 
in  all  lands. 

According  to  the  Lunar  Chronology,  which  measures 
time  by  the  revolutions  of  the  moon  around  the  earth, 
the  Gentile  times  have  already  expired  and  are  fifteen 
years  over.  According  to  the  Calendar  Chronology, 
which  measures  time  by  the  revolution  of  the  planets 
around  the  sun,  the  Gentile  times  only  lack  twenty-seven 
years.  According  to  the  Solar  Chronology,  which  meas- 
ures time  by  the  revolution  of  the  earth  around  the  sun, 
there  are  only  sixty-two  years  yet  remaining  to  complete 
the  period  of  the  Gentile  times,  when  we  are  assured  that 
our  Lord  will  appear  (Luke  21 :  24)  on  the  throne  of 
His  millennial  glory,  dethrone  Satan  and  all  of  his  sub- 
ordinates, and  establish  His  kingdom  from  the  rising  of 
the  sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same. 

"For  He  shall   have  dominion   over   river,  sea   and   shore, 
As  far  as  eagle's  pinion  or  dove's  light  wing  can  soar." 

Now,  let  us  remember  that  Daniel,  the  twelfth  chapter, 
gives  us  forty-five  years  as  the  Tribulation  Period,  during 
which  the  Ancient  of  Days  (Dan.  7:  9)  will  shake  down 
every  potentate,  political  and  ecclesiastical,  thus  clearing 
the  way  for  the  glorious  reign  of  His  Son.    N.  B.    Just 


430  Autobiography  op 

before  the  tribulation  shall  set  in,  our  Lord  will  descend 
and  lake  away  His  Bride  (Dan.  12)  to  the  Marriage 
Supper  of  the  Lamb,  (Matt.  25)  which  will  continue 
contemperaneously  with  the  Tribulation  on  the  earth  and 
at  its  expiration  our  Lord  will  return  on  the  throne  of 
1  [is  millennial  glory,  (Rev.  20)  arrest  Satan  and  take  him 
out  of  the  world,  establishing  His  glorious  reign  in  all  the 
earth. 

Now  you  see  above  that  the  Lunar  Chronology  has 
already  expire!  the  Gentile  times  plus  fifteen  years,  the 
Calendar  Chronology  will  expire  then  in  twenty-seven 
years,  and  the  Solar  Chronology  in  sixty-two  years,  but 
as  the  Tribulation  belongs  to  the  Gentile  times,  there- 
fore the  Rapture  will  take  place  forty-five  years  before 
its  expiration,  which  gives  us,  according  to  the  Lunar 
Chronology,  the  Rapture  over-due  forty-five  plus  fifteen, 
equaling  sixty  years ;  Calendar  Chronology,  forty-five 
minus  twenty-seven,  equaling  eighteen  years  Rapture 
over-due ;  and  Solar  Chronology,  sixty-two  minus  forty- 
five,  equals  seventeen  years  until  the  Rapture  of  the 
saints  is  due.  Therefore  you  see  that  the  Lunar  makes 
the  glorious  Rapture  of  the  saints  due  sixty  years  ago, 
the  Calendar  eighteen  years  ago,  and  the  Solar  seventeen 
years  from  this  date,  i.  e.,  in  1923. 

The  Mohammedans  and  Jews  use  the  Lunar  Chro- 
nology, the  European  nations  the  Calendar,  and  the 
Americans  the  Solar. 

These  facts  ought  to  keep  all  enlightened  Christians 
on  the  constant  outlook  for  the  appearing  of  our  blessed, 
glorified  Savior  to  transfigure  and  take  us  up  to  the 
Marriage  Supper  of  the  Lamb.  Are  you  robed,  ready, 
watching  and  waiting?     If  not,  settle  it  quickly.     Radi- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  431 

cally  and  eternally  plunge  beneath  the  crimson  flood 
that  washes  whiter  than  snow,  and  then  rise  to  walk  in 
Heaven's  own  light  above  the  world  and  sin,  with  heart 
made  pure,  garments  white  and  Christ  enthroned  within. 

(16.)  "Millennium."  This  is  one  of  these  dime 
booklets  which  tells  you  briefly  all  about  the  glorious 
reign  of  our  blessed  and  wonderful  Savior  on  the  earth 
in  His  personal,  transfigured  majesty,  following  His  de- 
scension  from  the  Marriage  Supper  of  the  Lamb  accom- 
panied by  the  transfigured  saints  of  His  Bridehood,  who, 
during  the  tribulation  on  the  earth  while  the  Father  was 
hackling  out  of  all  nations  the  incorrigibles  whose  char- 
acter is  utterly  incompatible  and  unharmonizable  with 
the  glorious  reign  of  perfect  justice,  purity,  righteousness 
and  love  in  all  the  earth,  passed  through  an  adjudication 
in  Heaven,  by  which  they  received  their  respective 
places  in  the  Divine  government  according  to  their  per- 
sonal idiosincrasies  and  adaptation  to  conserve  the  glo- 
rious millennial  reign,  as  the  faithful  and  loving  subor- 
dinates of  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  (Rev. 
20:4-6). 

Our  great  and  pressing  expedition  at  the  present  day 
is  to  get  the  Bride  ready  in  every  nation  under  Heaven, 
since  our  glorious  Lord  will  need  charter  members  for 
His  millennial  kingdom  in  every  nation.  He  informs  us 
(Matt.  19:  28)  that  the  Apostles  will  be  the  first  rulers 
in  His  glorious  coming  kingdom.  He  also  repeats  the 
same  at  the  last  supper  (Luke  22:28).  There  are  just 
about  twelve  great  nationalities  now  upon  the  earth, 
which  will  be  given,  according  to  His  promise,  to  the 
twelve  Apostles,  as  His  chief  subordinates,  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Bridehood  having  their  places  in  perfect  har- 


432 


Autobiography  oi? 


mony  and  symmetry,  with  infinite  delight  serving  our 
glorified  King  of  kings,  as  He  rules  all  nations  in  right- 
eousness and  love,  i.  e.,  with  a  rod  of  iron,  (Rev.  19:  15). 
While  the  millennial  reign  will  be  in  righteousness  and 
love,  yet  we  see  here  the  rod  of  iron,  which  will  preclude 
all  overt  sin.  The  people  will  be  free  and  still  on  pro- 
bation, so  that  th.ey  can  commit  sin,  but  in  the  absence  of 
Satan  and  all  of  his  myrmidons  to  tempt  them  it  is  not 
at  all  probable  that  they  will.  Yet,  in  the  event  that  anv 
do  rebel  against  the  authority  of  the  King,  such  will  be 
suddenly  cut  off  and  dropped  into  Hell. 

As  all  the  Apostles  went  to  their  respective  fields  oi 
labor  and  suffered  martyrdom,  there  is  at  least  a  proba- 
bility that  each  one  will  receive  his  original  evangelistic 
field  in  the  glorious  coming  kingdom.  In  the  prophecies, 
America  is  included  with  Europe,  as  we  are  all  Europe- 
ans. Oh,  what  incalculable  inspirations  pass  over  the 
inspired  pages,  filling  every  Christian  heart  with  the 
glowing  enthusiasm  for  a  place  in  the  Bridehood  and  a 
participation  in  the  glorious  millennial  reign  as  the  subor- 
dinates of  our  blessed  Christ ! 

(17.)  "The  Christhood  and  the;  Anti-christ- 
hood."  This  booklet  expounds  the  wonderful  Christ- 
hood  in  its  infinitesimal  official  ramifications  through  His 
numberless  ministers  after  the  order  of  Melchizedec, 
filling  the  whole  earth  and  continuing  forever,  uninter- 
rupted by  death,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Aaronic  ministry, 
but  abiding  eternally  and,  in  the  wonderful  gracious 
economy,  lighting  the  world  with  the  glory  of  God  mani- 
fested through  the  vicarious  substitutionary  atonement, 
wrought  by  His  Son,  our  glorious  Christ,  on  the  cruel 
cross  of  Calvary.    Through  the  diversified  media  of  His 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  433 

called  and  sent  ministry,  thij>  wemderful  Christ  reaches 
and  saves  all  the  lost  souls  who  will  appreciatively  recip- 
rocate His  mercy.  God  out  of  Christ  is  a  consuming 
fire,  (Heb.  12:  18).  God  in  Christ,  divine  and  omnipo- 
tent, is  the  only  hope  of  lost  souls. 

Anti  is  a  Greek  word  which  means  "instead  of,"  as 
Jesus  says,  "Who  of  you  is  a  father,  and  if  his  son  ask 
bread,  will  give  him  a  stone,  or  if  he  ask  a  fish  will,  in- 
stead of  a  fish,  give  him  a  serpent?"  There  our  Savior 
uses  the  preposition  anti  before  fish,  meaning  that  the 
cruel  father  in  that  case  gives  his  son  the  serpent  as  a 
substitute  for  the  fish.  Satan  rules  this  world  (2  Cor.  4: 
4),  doing  his  best  to  pass  himself  with  the  people  for 
God,  and  in  most  cases,  especially  in  heathen  lands,  is  em- 
inently succeeding. 

The  Pope  is  the  antichrist  of  prophecy,  generally, 
especially  in  Revelation,  denominated  the  beast.  The 
Greek  word  is  theerion,  which  means  a  wild  beast,  blood- 
thirsty, e.  g.,  the  lion,  the  tiger,  etc.  This  beast  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible  and  applied  to  antichrist  is  the  sym- 
bol of  carnality  which  has  always  predominated  in  the 
leadership  of  the  fallen  Church.  The  Pope  boldly  claims 
to  be  the  vicar  of  Christ  and  the  vicegerent  of  God,  thus 
actually  usurping  the  place  of  Christ  and  robbing  Him 
of  His  sovereign  prerogative.  He  is  also,  in  this  anti- 
christian  attitude,  co-operated  by  a  million  of  priests, 
dispersed  throughout  the  whole  world.  We  find  people 
who  are  not  Roman  Catholics  who  actually  make  this 
awful  antichristian  claim,  e.  g.}  Campbellites  and  Mor- 
mons, who,  instead  of  sending  all  the  people  to  the  bless- 
ed Christ,  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  "the  only 
name  given  under  Heaven  among  men  by  which  it  is 


434  Autobiography  op 

possible  to  be  saved/'  say,  "Come  and  join  our  Church 
and  we  will  immerse  you  in  water  for  the  remission  of 
your  sins,  and  thus  make  you  a  full-fledged  Christian." 

Satan  in  all  ages  has  been  doing  his  best  through  false 
prophets  and  counterfeit  preachers  to  actually  usurp  the 
throne  of  Christ,  whereas  the  Lord's  preachers  do  noth- 
ing but  hide  behind  the  cross  and  cry,  "Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  thus  serv- 
ing as  humble  heralds,  and  telling  all  the  people  about 
the  wonderful  Christ  who  alone  can  save.  The  ministers 
of  antichrist  say  to  all  the  world,  "Come  to  us  and  we 
will  take  you  in  hand  and  you  may  rest  easy  about  your 
souls,  as  you  have  only  to  do  what  we  tell  you."  There 
is  an  irrepressible  conflict  in  all  the  world  between  Christ, 
His  called  and  sent  preachers,  and  the  antichrists  with 
their  vast  panoplied  hosts  who  are  not  acquainted  with 
God,  and  consequently  do  not  claim  that  He  has  called 
and  sent  them.  The  Pope  and  all  antichristian  preach- 
ers claim  that  God  has  turned  over  the  salvation  of  the 
world  to  them,  thus  clearly  evincing  to  all  clearly  illumi- 
nated people  that  they  are  actually  manipulated  by  Satan 
and  led  captive  at  his  will. 

(18.)  "Appeal  to  Post-Miu,Ennialists."  This  is 
another  of  the  twenty-seven  dime  booklets.  In  this  I,  in 
the  honesty  of  my  heart  and  the  fear  of  God,  with  the 
open  Bible  and  facing  the  great  white  throne,  appeal  to 
my  clear  post-millennial  brethren,  feeling  that  they  have 
not  really  the  light  relative  to  this  matter,  which  God,  in 
His  mercy,  has  given  to  me.  Therefore  in  perfect  love  I 
appeal  to  them  to  halt  and  look  the  facts  squarely  in  the 
face  and  govern  themselves  accordingly.  The  post-mil- 
lennialists  tell  me  that  we  must  make  a  millennium  on  the 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  435 

earth  and  after  it  runs  a  thousand  years  the  Lord  will 
come  and  take  the  world ;  i.  e.,  we  are  to  make  the  Mil- 
lennium and  give  it  to  Him,  whereas  the  Bible  clearly  re- 
veals that  He  is  to  bring  the  Millennium  and  give  it  to  us. 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  Jesus  commands  us  all  to  be 
constantly  looking  for  Him.  This  was  true  of  the  Apos- 
tles and  the  primitive  Church ;  they  looked  for  Him 
constantly  as  long  as  they  lived.  The  Post-Millennialists 
are  not  looking  for  Him  now  and  with  this  view  cannot 
look  for  Him  until  the  Millennium  has  come  and  run 
its  happy  thousand  years  and  is  numbered  with  the  an- 
nals before  the  flood. 

Our  Lord  commands  us  frequently  over  and  over  to 
be  always  ready  and  watching  for  Him,  and  pronounces 
a  terrible  woe  on  the  people  who  are  unwatchful,  saying, 
"My  Lord  delay eth  His  coming,"  Matt.  24 :  50.  He 
actually  pronounces  such  a  man  a  wicked  servant  and 
says  that  his  Lord  will  come  in  a  day  he  does  not  look 
for  Him,  at  an  hour  he  does  not  expect  Him,  and  will 
cut  him  off  and  appoint  him  his  part  with  the  unbelievers 
and.  hypocrites,  and  "there  shall  be  weeping  and  wailing 
and  gnashing  of  teeth."  I  know  nothing  except  what 
the  Lord  tells  me,  therefore  I  would  rather  this  moment 
seal  my  fate  with  my  blood  than  to  believe  anything 
that  would  put  me  in  an  attitude  of  disobedience.  The 
post-millennial  view  of  the  Lord's  coming  is  absolutely 
incompatible  with  that  constant  outlook  for  His  appear- 
ing which  He  has  positively  commanded,  more  fre- 
quently than  anything  else.  O  beloved,  shall  we  not  all 
take  God  at  His  word  and  look  for  Jesus  every  moment 
and,  by  His  wonderful  redeeming  grace  and  sanctifying 


436  Autobiography  op 

power,  be  constantly  robed  and  ready  to  meet  Him  at 
His  glorious  coming? 

(19.)  "Apostasy"  is  also  another  of  the  twenty-seven 
clime  booklets.  A  subtle  heresy  has  somewhat  pervaded 
the  ranks  of  the  holiness  people,  assuming  that  the  for- 
feiture of  sanctification  necessarily  and  invariably  de- 
prives you  of  your  justification,  bringing  you  under  con- 
demnation and  relegating  you  back  into  the  kingdom  of 
Satan.  This  view  really  saps  the  very  foundation  of  the 
Movement  by  actually  nullifying  the  second  work  of 
grace,  without  which  we  certainly  have  no  holiness  people 
on  the  earth  in  contradistinction  to  the  justified.  A 
momentary  analysis  will  enable  you  to  see  the  possibility 
of  this  statement.  If  simultaneous  forfeiture  of  justi- 
fication and  sanctification  be  true,  then  the  Zinzendor- 
fians  are  right  in  their  hypothesis  of  simultaneous  recep- 
tion. 

As  Israel  had  two  crossings  in  her  journey  from  Egypt 
to  Canaan,  and  we  know  that  apostasy  means  retrogres- 
sion over  the  ground  we  traverse  in  our  escape"  from 
Satan's  bondage,  then  there  must  be  two  crossings  in  the 
retrogression  of  Israel  from  Canaan  back  to  Egypt. 
They  assume  that  we  cannot  commit  a  sin  without  losing 
our  sanctification,  which  we  frankly  admit.  Then  they 
go  on  and  tell  us  that  every  known  sin  brings  us  under 
condemnation  and  forfeits  our  justification.  Therefore 
they  conclude  that  every  sin  committed  by  sanctified 
people  forfeits  not  only  sanctification,  but  justification, 
too;  this  we  frankly  admit.  Their  argument  is  true, 
but  they  have  a  false  premise,  which  in  every  case  must 
produce  a  false  conclusion,  even  though  the  reasoning  be 
correct.    That  false  premise  is  the  assumption  that  we 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  437 

lose  sanctification  by  committing  some  known  sin,  which 
is  not  true  at  all.  The  fact  is  the  sanctification  must  be 
lost  before  you  ever  get  your  consent  to  do  wrong.  Tf 
your  sanctification  were  on  hand,  you  would  die  in  your 
tracks  rather  than  do  anything  which  your  conscience 
condemns.  Sanctification  is  not  forfeited  by  a  willing 
act  of  sin,  but  by  the  inadvertent  leakage  of  love,  and 
imbition  of  depravity,  imparted  by  evil  spirits  around 
you,  both  excarnate  and  incarnate.  In  this  way,  and  by 
nnwatchfulness,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  grieved  away,  as  in 
the  case  of  Sampson,  who  knew  not  that  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  had  departed  from  him  till  he  found  himself 
utterly  incompetent  to  whip  the  Philistines.  So  in  this 
way  sanctified  people  grieve  away  the  Holy  Spirit,  lose 
their  power  to  resist  temptation,  and  the  moment  they 
commit  a  known  sin  their  justification  is  gone;  whereas 
the  Sanctifier  had  been  grieved  away  sometime  previously 
and  consequently  Satan,  too  strong  for  you,  gains  the 
victory  over  you  and  takes  you  captive.  This  is  a  great 
practical  truth  and  ought  to  be  understood  by  all  the 
holiness  people.  For  the  want  of  special  light  and 
Biblical  instruction  at  this  point,  the  Holiness  people  are 
fast  dropping  down  the  standard  to  the  normal  level  of 
regeneration. 

(20.)  "The  Bible.''  This  booklet  expounds  the  great 
work  which  the  Holy  Ghost  does  through  the  medium 
of  His  Bible.  Paul  says,  "All  Scripture  is  God-breathed," 
i.  e.,  it  is  the  very  breath  of  God,  thus  settling  forever 
the  controverted  question  of  its  plenary,  verbal  inspira- 
tion. It  is  of  the  greatest  importance  that  we  ascertain 
the  interpolations  which  uninspired  men  have  added  to 
the  Bible,  and  which  really  constitute  no  part  of  it  what- 


438  rOBIOGRAPHY    Otf 

ever.  You  who  do  not  read  the  Greek  independently 
ought  to  have  my  translation,  so  as  to  see  just  what  is 
Scripture  and  what  is  not.  The  dear  people  have  im- 
portuned me  with  all  their  might  to  translate  the  Old 
Testament,  but  it  is  too  late  for  me  to  undertake  it, 
neither  do  I  feel  any  leading  in  that  direction.  It  is 
beautiful  and  true,  but  we  are  not  living  under  the  Old 
Testament  dispensation,  but  the  New,  therefore  the  thing 
for  us  to  do  is  to  learn  from  the  New  Testament  all  the 
great  vital  truths  constituting  the  redemption  scheme. 
This  we  can  do  by  the  help  of  God,  so  that  none  of  us 
need  walk  in  darkness,  nor  the  dim  light  of  the  moon 
and  stars,  but  amid  the  glorious  noonday,  with  which 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  floods  all  duly  appreciative 
Bible  students  who  have  given  up  all  of  their  own  wis- 
dom, creeds  .and  sectism,  and  content  themselves  to  sit 
meek  and  lowly  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  saying,  like  little 
Samuel,  "Speak,  Lord,  thy  servant  heareth."  Mean- 
while the  Holy  Ghost  is  freely  given  to  teach  us  the  deep 
things  of  God  and  the  wonderful  truths  of  the  Kingdom. 

Infidelity  in  the  form  of  higher  criticism  is  Satan's 
latest  investiture  of  his  old  infidelity  of  ages  long  ago, 
forged  in  the  crucibles  of  Hell.  So  many  of  the  higher 
clergy  are  getting  tilted  by  this  new  fangled  legerdemain 
that  it  is  now  incumbent  on  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
holiness  people  to  take  the  Bible  into  their  own  hands, 
repudiating  the  human  ipse  dixit  forever  and  demanding 
a  positive  "Thus  saith  the  Lord"  for  everything  they 
accept. 

You  will  find  this  booklet,  which  tells  you  what  the 
Bible  is  and  what  it  does,  exceedingly  helpful  in  your 
apprehension  and  comprehension  of  this  invaluable  Way- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  439 

bill  from  earth  to  Heaven.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the 
Guide,  but  He  guides  all  true  pilgrims  through  the  Guide- 
book which  He  has  given  us.  Therefore,  we  must  not 
fold  our  arms  and  content  ourselves  with  easy-chair  piety 
while  Satan  rocks  that  arm-chair  and  sings  lullabies  over 
us  till  he  can  dump  us  into  Hell.  If  we  do  not  prove 
ourselves  assiduous  students  in  the  school  of  Christ,  al- 
ways teachable  by  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  lighting  up 
His  precious  Word  and  using  His  faithful  people  to 
instruct  the  juveniles  and  humble  catechumens  of  this 
blessed  Guide-book,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  our 
necks  lassoed  by  Satan's  crafty  sophistries.  In  our  study 
of  the  Bible,  we  must  ask  God  to  deliver  us  from  our 
sectisms,  creedisms,  dogmatisms,  and  prejudices  of  every 
kind ;  not  only  giving  us  a  clean  heart  under  the  cleans- 
ing blood,  in  which  He  will  condescend  to  dwell,  but  a 
purified  intellect  from  which  all  the  debris  of  super- 
stition and  idolatry  in  all  its  forms  and  phases  has  been 
expurgated,  so  that  it  may  be  blank  and  clean  and  ready 
for  the  inscriptions  with  which  the  blessed  Author  of 
the  precious  Word  in  mercy  may  write  the  cordival, 
vocalized  truths,  constantly  to  serve  as  beacon  lights 
along  the  heavenly  highway. 

(21.)  "God's  EcclEsia."  This  is  the  word  translated 
"Church"  throughout  the  Bible.  It  is  a  Greek  com- 
pound from  ek,  out,  and  kaleoo,  to  call ;  therefore  it  means 
"the  called  out  people,"  in  all  the  earth.  When  Jesus 
was  speaking  of  His  sheep,  in  John  10,  He  said,  "I  have 
other  sheep  which  are  not  of  this  fold.  It  behooveth  me 
to  bring  them  hither,  that  there  may  be  one  fold  and 
one  shepherd."  Of  course  those  sheep  were  among  the 
Gentiles.      When    God    put    the    spirit    of   prophecy   on 


440  Autobiography  of 

Ananias,  the  wicked  high  priest  who  was  thirsting  for 
the  blood  of  His  Son,  and  he  said  that  "it  behooved  that 
one  man  should  die  for  the  people  and  that  the  whole 
nation  should  not  perish,"  he  spoke  this  not  of  himself 
but,  being  high  priest  that  year,  he  prophesied  that  Jesus 
was  about  to  die  for  the  nation,  and  not  for  the  nation 
only,  but  that  He  might  gather  into  one  the  children 
of  God  who  had  been  dispersed  abroad.  These  children 
of  God  are  scattered  through  every  nation  under  Heaven, 
having  been  born  from  above,  regenerated  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  consequently  become  members  of  God's 
family,  which  is  but  another  name  for  the  Church.  You 
see,  then,  that  God's  Ecclesia  are  scattered  over  every 
land  between  the  cardinal  points  and  it  is  the  work  of  the 
Gospel  ministers  to  gather  them  all  into  the  New  Testa- 
ment organization  in  order  to  their  edification  by  the 
graces  of  Christian  fellowship  and  the  mutual  instruction 
and  encouragement  of  each  other. 

Denominationalism  has  seriously  confused  the  pop- 
ular mind  in  reference  to  the  character  and  constituency 
of  God's  Church.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  sectarianism 
in  any  form  whatever,  but  includes  all  truly  regenerated 
people  in  Heaven  and  in  earth  in  its  membership,  and  all 
of  the  sanctified  people  in  the  world  constitute  the  offi- 
cial board  and  the  ordained  ministry.  The  fires  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  when  Jesus  baptizes  us  utterly  consume  all 
humanisms  which  divide  God's  people,  e.  g.,  lodgery, 
creeds,  dogmatisms  and  all  of  the  appurtenances  of  sects 
and  denominations.  Nothing  but  the  wonderful  efficacy 
of  the  cleansing  blood  in  entire  sanctification.  and  the 
refining  fires  of  the  Holy  Ghost  constantly  by  the  blessed 
indwelling  Comforter  can  effectually  fortify  God's  Ec- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  441 

clesia  against  the  contaminations  of  heterogeneous  human 
dogmatisms. 

(22.)  "Carnality."  This  word  is  synonymous  with 
depravity  and  means  the  old  man  of  sin ;  the  Satanic 
nature  in  the  heart  transmitted  from  the  fall.  The  same 
is  Ishmael  whom  God  commanded  Abraham  to  take 
away  that  he  might  not  be  an  heir  with  Isaac  in  the 
patriarchal  patrimony.  The  same  is  also  Agag,  the  king 
of  the  Amalekites,  who  fought  against  Israel  forty  years 
to  keep  them  out  of  the  Promised  Land.  When  God  com- 
manded Saul,  in  his  royal  representation  of  all  Israel,  to 
go  and  exterminate  them,  and  he  spared  Agag  and  the 
best  of  the  sheep  and  cattle  that  he  might  offer  fat  sacri- 
fices to  God,  then  He  utterly  cast  him  away,  no  longer 
answering  him  either  in  dreams  or  visions,  nor  by  Urim 
and  Thummim.  Saul  there  drifted  away  and  turned  spir- 
itualist, finally  winding  up  his  miserable  life  by  suicide. 
Thus  appallingly  is  illustrated  the  sad  fate  of  every 
Christian  who  does  not  have  Agag  slain,  i.  e.,  old  Adam 
crucified  and  the  body  of  sin  utterly  exterminated.  Com- 
promise with  sin  anywhere  means  ultimate  damnation. 
Saul  had  had  a  bright  conversion.  The  Word  pos- 
itively says  that  "when  he  met  the  Lord's  prophets  God 
gave  him  another  heart."  He  reigned  over  Israel  forty 
years,  making  them  a  good  king,  both  wise  in  counsel 
and  valiant  on  the  battle-field.  In  his  case  carnality  took 
the  form  of  self-will  and  never  would  fully  let  up ;  you 
see  his  awful  end,  dying  on  Mount  Gilboa  amid  terrible 
and  signal  defeat  and  going  clown  to  a  backslider's  Hell. 
Let  every  one  take  warning  and  adopt  the  maxim  of 
Cato,  the  great  Roman  statesman,  with  which  he  wound 
up  every  powerful  speech,  delivered  in  the  Senate  Oral 


442  Autobiography  oi? 

Chamber,  "Carthago  delenda  est,"  "Carthage  must  be 
destroyed."  Let  us  make  a  slight  change  in  the  phraseol- 
ogy and  ring  out  now,  and  never  compromise,  "Carnality 
must  be  destroyed."  You  will  find  this  booklet  a  blessing 
to  you  as  the  Holy  Spirit  will  use  it  as  a  heart-searcher. 

(23.)  "John  the  Baptist  and  the  Apostle  Paul." 
These  were  the  two  greatest  preachers  the  world  ever 
saw,  except  the  Conqueror  of  Mount  Calvary.  They 
tower  in  their  intellectual  majesty,  the  lights  of  both 
dispensations.  Though  John  lived  and  died  in  the  Old, 
he  proleptically  enjoyed  the  Pentecostal  experience  of 
the  New,  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  from  the  womb 
of  his  mother,  i.  e.,  sanctified  wholly.  Paul  unfortunately 
backslid  from  his  infantile  justification,  Rom.  7 : 9,  "/ 
was  alive  at  one  time  without  law,  but  the  commandment 
having  come,  sin  revived  and  I  died,  and  the  command- 
ment zvhich  is  unto  me  for  life  the  same  was  unto  death, 
for  sin  having  taken  occasion  through  the  commandment 
deceived  me  and  by  it  sleiv  me."  Here  we  see  that  Paul, 
like  every  other  son  and  daughter  of  Adam's  fallen  race, 
enjoyed  justification  through  the  normal  grace  of  Christ, 
till  he  got  old  enough  to  know  right  from  wrong,  then 
his  hereditary  depravity  rising  up  antagonized  the  law, 
causing  him  to  become  a  transgressor  and  fall  under 
condemnation. 

He  was  reared  up  in  a  godly  home  and  with  the  great- 
est possible  educational  facilities  in  the  world  of  his  day, 
not  only  graduating  in  the  Greek  College  of  Tarsus, 
but  in  the  Hebrew  Academies  of  Jerusalem.  He  became 
a  great  theologian,  his  extraordinary  intellect  and  trans- 
cendent culture  giving  him  a  place  in  the  Sanhedrim  and 
at  the   front   of  the  theocracy.     But  evidently   all    this 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  443 

time  he  was  under  the  condemnation  which  supervened 
upon  the  forfeiture  of  his  infantile  justification  a 
mentioned  and  thus  preaching  ahead  in  a  backslidden 
state,  till  the  lightning  flashing  from  the  glorified  person 
of  Jesus  sent  thunderbolts  of  conviction  to  his  guilty 
soul,  and  prostrated  him  an  importunate  mourner  in  the 
house  of  Judas,  till  gloriously  converted  under  the  min- 
istry of  Ananias. 

While  preaching  with  all  his  might  he  soon  realized 
the^need  of  the  second  work  and,  going  away  into  Arabia, 
where  Moses  sought  it  forty  years  and  received  it  at 
the  burning  bush,  he  agonized  in  the  burning  sand  three 
years,  trying  to  get  it  by  the  law,  until,  giving  up  in 
utter  desperation,  he  turned  the  body  of  sin  over  to 
Christ  and  immediately  shouted  the  victory,  Rom.  7 :  24. 
Then  and  there  he  was  transformed  into  a  cyclone  of 
fire,  flashing  and  flaming  over  Asia  and  Europe,  till  he 
lost  his  head  at  Nero's  block,  sweeping  up  to  Heaven 
in  a  chariot  of  fire. 

Oh,  what  worlds  of  spiritual  detriment  supervene  1  to 
that  mighty  man  because  he  lost  his  infantile  justification ! 
How  signally  contrastive  was  the  experience  of  John 
the  Baptist,  who,  instead  of  backsliding  from  his  in- 
fantile justification,  added  to  it  the  glorious  experience 
of  proleptical  sanctification,  actually  entering  into  the 
Pentecostal  power  in  anticipation,  thus  the  greatest 
preacher  the  world  has  ever  seen,  his  thrilling  eloquence, 
stentorian  oratory  and  fiery  pathos  literally  magnetizing 
all  who  came  within  the  sound  of  his  trumpet  voice,  till 
he  actually  emptied  the  cities  and  populated  the  wilder- 
ness with  the  thronging  multitudes,  the  rich  on  their 
camels,  the  middle  classes  on  their  donkeys,  and  the  poor 


j  i  \  Autobiography  op 

trudging  along  the  dusty  way  on  foot,  from  dewy  morn 
to  dusky  eve.    All  this  that  they  might  hang  spell-bound 

upon  the  lips  of  the  paradoxical  prophet  of  the  wilder- 
ness. 

You  find  at  least  an  approximate  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem in  the  fact  that  when  Herod  sent  the  soldiers  to 
murder  the  babes  of  Bethlehem,  Zachariah  and  Elizabeth 
took  their  son  and  fled  into  the  wilderness  and  never 
came  back.  They  reared  him  up  in  rural  simplicity 
among  the  Essenes,  the  poor  holiness  people  who  lived 
there  for  the  sake  of  room,  peace  and  solitary  commun- 
ion with  God. 

Oh,  how  all  of  our  Sunday-school  teachers  need 
awakening  to  the  blessed  feasability  of  having  their 
pupils  converted  before  they  forfeit  their  infantile  jus- 
tification and  then  sanctified  before  they  backslide,  and 
do  you  not  know  that  this  is  the  very  way  to  bring  in 
the  Millennium?  You  need  this  booklet  to  give  you 
light  and  help  you  to  study  these  glorious  realities  so 
delectably  revealed  in  the  precious  Word. 

(24.)  "Theology  versus  Creedoeogy."  Our  lands 
abound  in  theological  schools.  They  are  all  misnamed, 
unless  it  is  some  of  the  Bible  Schools  conducted  by  the 
holiness  people.  They  should  be  called  "Creedological 
Schools,"  from  the  simple  fact  that  they  study  the  Bible 
in  view  of  bending  it  to  their  creed,  which  is  an  awful 
mistake ;  it  should  be  the  reverse,  i.  e.,  bending  their  creed 
to  the  Bible.  There  never  was  a  creed  made  on  earth 
till  after  the  conversion  of  the  Emperor  Constantine, 
when,  A.  D.  325,  they  called  the  /Ecumenical  Council 
to  Nice  in  Bithynia,  over  which  the  Emperor  presided, 
liiling  in  a  golden  chair.  'The  sudden  promotion  of  the 


Rf,v.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  445 

Christians  from  the  lion's  mouth  and  the  burning  stake 
to  the  royal  palace  and  the  first  places  in  the  empire,  re- 
vived carnality  and  superinduced  the  desire  for  a  human 
creed.  So  long  as  they  burnt  them  at  the  stake,  and 
used  them  to  fatten  their  lions,  tigers  and  bears,  they 
never  thought  of  any  creed  but  the  New  Testa- 
ment, nor  any  doctrine  but  "Holiness  to  the  Lord." 
The  Council  at  Nice  proved  to  be  the  prolific  mother 
of  all  the  creeds  of  Christendom  and  is  still  used 
in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  Episcopal  being 
a  modification  and  the  Methodist  an  abstraction  from 
that.  There  is  no  reason  why  every  church  in 
the  world  should  not  drop  her  creed  this  day  and  adopt 
the  New  Testament;  not  that  we  have  any  criticism  for 
the  Old,  but  we  are  not  under  that  dispensation. 

Theology  is  from  two  Greek  words,  Theos,  God,  and 
logue,  speech ;  therefore  it  simply  means  the  word  of 
God.  The  Bible  Schools,  in  the  literal  sense,  are  the 
only  theological  institutions  we  have,  as  all  of  the  so- 
called  theological  colleges  of  the  denominations  really 
conserve  their  creed  to  which  they  are  committed,  making 
it  the  end  in  view  to  bend  the  Bible  to  it  in  order  to 
bolster  it  up  and  sustain  it,  instead  of  bending  their  creed 
to  the  Bible,  the  thing  pre-eminently  reasonable  and 
proper.  If  all  denominations  would  drop  their  creeds 
and  make  the  Bible  their  text  book,  perfectly  independent 
of  their  creed,  you  would  soon  see  a  felicitious  approx- 
imation either  to  other.  These  creeds  have  done  more 
to  sunder  and  alienate  the  body  of  Christ  than  any  other 
influence.  In  heathen  lands  we  now  see  an  auspicious 
trend  on  the  part  of  all  denominations  either  to  other. 
In  great  India,  where  I  preached  three  months,  I  every- 


446  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF 

where  found  an  earnest  call  and  a  hearty  welcome.  You 
need  this  booklet  to  edify  and  post  you  in  this  great  and 
important  truth,  *.  e.,  the  absolute  supremacy  and  sov- 
ereign independency  of  God's  Word. 

(25.)  "The  Seven  Churches."  You  find  them  cat- 
alogued and  described  in  the  first  three  chapters  of 
Revelation.  These  Churches  consecutively  represent 
Christendom,  down  to  the  glorious  coming  of  the  Lord. 
The  Church  at  Ephesus  represents  the  backslidden  Apos- 
tolic institution.  A  whole  generation  had  passed  away 
into  eternity  after  it  was  established  by  the  labors  of 
Paul,  as  John  did  his  writing  sixty-five  years  after  our 
Lord's  ascension ;  consequently  the  Pauline  converts  had 
mostly  exchanged  the  battle-field  for  the  mount  of  vic- 
tory, whereas  the  new  membership  perhaps  had  never 
been  so  spiritual  and  zealous  as  their  predecessors,  while 
doubtless  some  of  them  had  never  been  converted  and 
others,  though  saved,  had  never  received  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  here  have  the  sad  revelation  that  they  had  lost  their 
first  love;  consequently  the  Holy  Ghost  commands  them 
to  repent  and  do  their  first  work  over  lest  He  come  and 
take  away  their  candlestick,  i.  e.,  lest  they  actually  lose 
their  organization.  This  has  been  signally  verified  and 
that  great  and  magnificent  city  of  Ephesus  has  long  ago 
become  a  heap  of  ruins. 

Smyrna  represents  the  Martyr  Church  during  the  first 
three  hundred  years,  when,  it  is  estimated,  one  hundred 
millions  sealed  their  faith  with  their  blood.  If  you  read 
this  scripture  you  will  find  that  there  is  not  a  solitary 
charge  against  Smyrna.  History  says  that  they  actually 
carried  the  Gospel  to  all  nations,  pushing  the  battle  so 
heroically  that  they  even  got  the  emperor  gloriously  con- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  447 

verted  and,  through  his  influence,  sent  their  flaming 
heralds  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  God  warns  them  that 
they  shall  suffer  persecution  ten  clays ;  that  means  ten 
different  great  persecutionary  epochs,  which  broke  out 
afresh  at  the  expiration  of  every  thirty  years  in  which 
the  reigning  emperor  always  did  his  best  for  their  ex- 
termination. But  the  more  they  killed  them  the  more 
rapidly  they  spread  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Pergamos  represents  the  proud  Imperial  Church  which 
followed  the  martyr  age,  which  wound  up  with  the  con- 
version of  the  emperor.  The  normal  effect  of  this  won- 
derful promotion  to  the  royal  palace,  which  ruled  the 
whole  world,  was  to  gradually  bring  the  world  into 
the  Church ;  and  meanwhile  millions  of  pagans  were  only 
nominally  converted,  responsive  to  the  imperial  edict, 
their  priests  turning  Gospel  ministers. 

The  Church  of  Thyatira  symbolizes  Roman  Catholicism 
which  followed  the  Constantinian  age,  actually  pagan- 
izing Christianity  by  bringing  in  the  worship  of  angels, 
the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  canonization  of  saints.  We 
see  her  reprimanded  for  tolerating  that  woman  Jezebel 
who  taught  the  people  to  eat  things  offered  to  idols  and 
commit  fornication,  which  means  spiritual  deflection  from 
God  and  departure  from  entire  sanctification,  which 
brings  us  into  the  Bridehood,  eternally  discarding  all 
earthly  lovers. 

Then  we  have  the  Church  of  Sardis,  to  which  the 
Apostle  positively  says,  "Thou  hast  a  name  to  live  but 
art  dead  "  This  is  the  awful  state  of  spiritual  death  in 
which  Luther,  Wycliffe,  Zwingle,  Melancthon  and  Eras- 
mus found  the  Church.    However,  John  says  that  there 


.}  [8  Autobiography  of 

are  a  few  in  it  who  have  not  defiled  their  garments  and 
they  shall  walk  with  I  Tim  in  white. 

The  sixth  is  the  Church  of  Philadelphia,  which  sym- 
bolizes the  greal  Lutheran  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  which  brought  a  glorious  sunburst  on  the  black 
darkness  which  had  filled  the  world  a  thousand  years. 
If  you  will  examine  the  paragraph  descriptive  of  this 
CI inrch,  you  will  find  not  a  solitary  allegation  against 
her. 

Last  of  all  we  have  the  Church  of  Laodicea,  which 
symbolizes  the  fallen  Protestant  denominations  of  the 
present  day.  God  says  to  her,  "Would  that  thou  wast 
cither  cold  or  hot,  but  because  thou  art  neither  cold  nor 
hot,  but  lukewarm,  therefore  I  will  spue  thee  out  of  my 
mouth."  Thus  you  see  lukewarm  indifference  is  worse 
than  outbreaking  wickedness,  because  it  makes  people 
harder  to  save  and  surer  of  Hell.  That  is  the  awful  state 
of  things  in  the  great  Protestant  churches  this  day.  They 
are  lukewarm,  neither  cold  nor  hot,  but  indifferent; 
therefore  vastly  harder  to  save  than  the  poor  victims 
of  slumdom  whose  wretched  condition  has  already  given 
them  a  prelude  of  Hell.  Now  where  is  the  Holiness 
Movement?  You  find  it  in  the  words  "Behold,  I  stand 
at  the  door  and  knock  .  .  .  ,"  Rev.  3 :  20.  Go  1  help  us 
to  knock  our  best. 

(26.)  "Mighty  to  Save/'  Isa.  62:  1.  Man  has  been 
denominated  by  philosophers,  "The  religious  animal." 
When  I  traveled  around  the  world  I  was  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  significant  fact  that  all  the  heathen 
are,  if  possible,  more  religious  than  the  Christians  and 
the  same  is  true  with  the  Mohammedans,  (who  are  prac- 
tically heathen).    They  pray  five  times  a  day,  even  when- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  449 

ever  they  happened  to  be  on  ships  packed  with  people, 
till  it  seemed  that  they  could  not  get  room  for  genuflec- 
tion, yet  they  always  found  room  and  time  to  pray,  and 
were  utterly  dead  to  all  criticism. 

The  poor  Hindus  worship  three  hundred  and  thirty 
millions  of  gods.  I  found  their  temples  and  shrines 
everywhere  and  saw  them  worshiping  and  plunging  into 
the  holy  rivers  and  tanks  to  wash  their  sins  away. 

The  heathen  world  is  crowded  with  altars,  shrines, 
temples  and  gods,  but  the  trouble  is  that  none  of  them 
can  save.  Many  heathens  seem  actually  to  entertain  a 
correct  idea  of  the  one  omnipotent  God  who  created  the 
world,  yet,  amid  all  their  superabounding  religious  cere- 
monies, shrines  and  temples,  they  "have  no  god  that 
actually  takes  their  sins  away  and  saves  them,  but  always 
their  crushnig  burden  of  a  guilty  conscience  haunts 
them  night  and  day.  The  most  efficient  preaching  we 
can  do  among  the  heathen  is  faithfully  to  tell  them  that 
Jesus  has  actually  taken  away  our  sins  and  we  know  it. 
We  may  tell  them  as  much  as  we  will  about  the  Bible 
and  our  God  and  the  great  truths  of  our  religion,  but 
they,  as  in  India,  have  their  bible,  the  Shastras,  and 
their  books,  the  Vedas,  but  no  realization  that  their 
burden  of  sin  is  taken  away.  They  travel  on  long  pil- 
grimages for  the  privilege  of  baptism  in  the  holy  rivers, 
the  Ganges  and  Jumna,  but  still  have  no  consciousness 
of  the  burden  removed,  of  a  new  heart  and  actual  salva- 
tion. 

Of  course  Christendom  is  full  of  religious  forms  and 
ceremonies,  rites  and  legalisms,  yet  it  is  only  compara- 
tively few  who,  in  utter  and  eternal  abandonment  of 
everything  out  of  harmony  with  God's  will,  pray  through 


450  AUTODIOGRAPHY    O* 

and  meet  the  omnipotent  God  in  Christ,  revealed  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  get  under  the  blood  and,  through  receptive 
and  appropriative  faith  in  the  infallible  promises,  actually 
reach  the  consciousness  of  personal  salvation.  These 
witnesses  to  Him,  "Who  is  mighty  to  save,"  are  com- 
paratively few  in  Christendom  and  utterly  minus  in  Pag- 
andom. Yet  this  is  the  crowning  glory  of  the  wonderful 
Christ  revealed  in  the  Bible,  i.  e.,  this  matter  of  fact,  of 
experimental  realization  that  He  veritably  is  mighty  to 
save. 

King  Manasseh  reigned  in  Jerusalem  fifty-three  years 
from  his  coronation  to  his  death,  including  a  period  of 
several  years  which  he  spent  in  Babylonion  captivity.  Al- 
though his  father  was  the  great  leader  of  the  holiness 
movement,  even  travelling  all  over  the  country  destroy- 
ing idolatry  and  bringing  all  Israel  back  to  Jehovah,  yet, 
when  Manasseh  succeeded  him,  he  not  only  went  back 
into  idolatry,  leading  the  nation  with  him,  but  polluted 
the  house  of  the  Lord  with  idols  and  worshipped  them 
there,  filling  all  the  land  with  idolatry  and  wickedness — 
an  enormously  aggravated  case,  as  he  led  the  whole 
nation  into  most  horrific  idolatry  and  all  forms  of  wicked- 
ness. Consequently  God  let  the  king  of  Babylon  carry 
him  off  in  chains  and  torment  and  punish  him  awfully. 
Amid  his  deep  distress  and  tortures  in  his  captivity, 
he  repented  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  greatly  humbled 
himself  in  the  dust  before  God,  fasting  and  weeping  days, 
months  and  years.  Thus  he  cried  unto  the  Lord  of  his 
fathers  to  have  mercy  on  him  and  forgive  his  sins.  God 
heard  his  prayers  while  enduring  the  awful  tortures  his 
tormentors  inflicted  on  him  in  his  captivity,  delivered 
him,  brought  him  back  to  Jerusalem  and  reinstated  him 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  451 

on  his  throne.  After  this  he  did  his  best  to  bring  all  of 
his  people  back  to  God  to  purify  the  country  from  idol- 
atry. I  mention  this  as  an  illustration  of  our  Christ's 
omnipotency  to  save. 

When  Jesus  preached  in  Gadara,  you  remember  He 
saved  the  legionaire,  actually  casting  out  ten  thousand 
demons.  You  see  it  was  a  clear  and  glorious  case  of 
actual  salvation  from  that  demoniacal  arm.  The  man 
turned  preacher  and  wanted  to  go  with  Jesus,  as  an 
apostle,  but  he  was  a  Gentile  and  our  Lord's  Apostles 
were  all  Jews,  who,  in  the  gracious  economy,  were  the 
first  to  receive  the  Gospel.  So  Jesus  sent  him,  as  you 
remember,  to  his  own  people  to  tell  them  the  mighty 
work  which  He  had  done  for  him.  History  says  that 
he  proved  exceedingly  efficient,  preaching  all  over  that 
country. 

Pella  was  one  of  the  ten  cities  in  that  country  (Deca- 
polis,  deca,  "ten,"  and  polls,  "city"),  to  which  the  Chris- 
tian Jews  fled  when  Jerusalem  was  destroyed  and  their 
nationality  exterminated,  and  history  says  they  found  a 
joyous  welcome  by  a  great  number  of  Gentile  disciples 
who  had  been  saved  through  the  preaching  of  the  legion- 
aire. So  you  will  find  this  booklet,  "Mighty  to  Save," 
helpful  to  you,  energizing  your  faith  in  Him,  "who  is 
mighty  to  save." 

(27.)  "God's  Triple  Leadership/'  Man  is  a  trinity, 
consisting  of  spirit,  soul  and  body.  Harmonical  with  this 
trinity  is  the  Divine  leadership,  His  providence  lealing 
the  body,  His  Word  the  soul,  and  His  Spirit  the  human 
spirit.  Oh,  the  unutterable  beauty  and  glory  of  the  re- 
demptive scheme!  It  is  absolutely  inscrutable  and  in- 
comprehensible, verily  passing  all  understanding.     No 


452  Autobiography  op 

soul  can  offer  the  slightest  apology  at  the  judgment  bar, 
when  turned  away  to  the  awful  doom  of  endless  woe, 
from  the  simple  fact  that  the  gracious  economy  is  so 
transcendently  complete  and  perfect  in  all  its  phases  and 
ramifications,  as  forever  to  sweep  from  the  field  every 
vestige  of  apology.  Our  probation  involves  constant  and 
awful  temptation  from  the  simple  fact  that  we  have  a 
most  formidable  enemy  who  never  sleeps.  Besides,  he  is 
co-operated  by  countless  millions  of  sleepless  myrmidons. 
While  our  enemy  is  great,  our  Friend  is  infinitely  and 
inconceivably  greater.  Therefore  we  have  nothing  to 
do  but  give  Him  a  chance  and  be  true.  Victory  comes 
along  all  the  time  as  a  normal  sequence  of  our  loyalty 
to  the  omnipotent  Conqueror  of  Mt.  Calvary. 

God's  providence  faithfully  manages  my  body,  just 
where  He  wants  me  to  be;  just  as  safe  on  the  other  side 
of  the  world  as  in  the  dear  "Old  Kentucky  Home." 
Neither  barbarians,  savages,  wild  beasts,  railroad  wrecks 
nor  ocean  storms,  cholera  nor  small-pox,  can  destroy  this 
body  till  its  work  is  done,  if  I  abide  in  the  center  of  His 
sweet  will,  from  which  I  would  infinitely  rather  die  than 
to  deflect  an  iota. 

God's  precious  and  infallible  Word  leads  my  intellect. 
I  must  be  studious  and  industrious  as  He  has  command- 
ed me,  2.  Tim.  2:  15,  "Study  to  shozv  thyself  approved 
of  God,  a  workman  not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing 
the  Word  of  Truth."  Therefore  I  am  to  be  an  assiduous 
student,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  meek,  humble  and 
lowly ;  pride,  vanity,  egotism  and  my  own  ways  consumed 
by  the  fires  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  meanwhile,  like  little 
Samuel,  saying,  "Speak,  Lord,  for  thy  servant  heareth." 
Since  old  Adam  has  been  crucified,  I  am  dead  to  every 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  453 

voice  but  that  which  rings  down  from  the  effulgent 
throne.  As  the  Bible  is  my  only  Guide,  like  John  Wesley, 
I  am  truly  homo  unius  libvi,  a  man  of  one  book;  mean- 
while I  avail  myself  of  the  multitudinous  human  teachers 
He  has  given  me  expository  of  His  precious  Word. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  only  leader  of  my  spirit.  We 
are  all  in  eminent  danger  of  seduction  and  delusion  by 
evil  spirits,  playing  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  are  more 
easily  detected  and  exposed  than  we  generally  think. 
If  you  follow  them,  they  will  quickly  lead  you  to  do  some- 
thing out  of  God's  Word  and  providence,  which  is  a 
certain  evidence  of  their  Satanic  identity.  As  God  made 
my  body,  mind  and  spirit,  His  leadership  will  always 
be  characteristic  of  this  beautiful  triple  harmony.  These 
evil  spirits  will  lead  you  into  fanaticism,  where  you  will 
ignore  God's  Word  and  providence,  which  is  a  certain 
evidence  that  you  are  on  your  way  to  ruin.  Satan  is 
now  stirring  earth  and  Hell  to  ruin  the  holiness  people 
by  deflecting  them  from  the  straight  and  narrow  way  of 
"Holiness  to  the  Lord."  You  need  this  booklet  to  in- 
struct you  in  reference  to  this  wonderful  and  glorious 
triple  leadership,  which  is  our  only  security  from  the 
side-tracking,  derailing  and  ditching  devices  of  the 
enemy,  who  is  constantly  hounding  the  track  of  every 
soul  who  has  escaped  out  of  his  clutches.  He  will  cap- 
ture you  soon  or  late,  if  you  are  not  true  to  God's  triple 
leadership. 

These  twenty-seven  dime  booklets,  which  you  get  for 
so  little  money  that  you  cannot  miss  it,  will  furnish  you  a 
splendid  library,  not  only  posting  you  in  the  great  Bible 
truths  of  full  salvation,  but  fortifying  you  against  the 
myriad  Satanic  devices  which  lurk  around  you,  and  hang 


454  Autobiography  of 

upon  your  track  like  the  lightning  upon  the  skirts  of  the 
clouds,  constantly  ready  to  strike  you  dead  with  a  thun- 
derbolt forged  in  the  arsenals  of  damnation.  Besides, 
you  ought  to  keep  a  supply  of  them  to  loan  to  your 
friends.  That  is  the  reason  why  they  are  made  so  cheap, 
that  every  friend  of  Jesus  can  financially  well  afford  to 
keep  a  circulating  library.  Oh,  what  a  light  will  you  be 
in  your  neighborhood,  always  ready  to  put  in  the  hand 
of  your  neighbor  the  very  book  he  needs  for  conviction, 
conversion,  sanctification,  establishment,  and  fortification 
against  this  heresy  or  that.  If  you  had  a  supply  of  these 
twenty-seven  dime  booklets  for  loan,  having  people  re- 
turn them  after  reading  a  few  times,  studying  and  under- 
standing them,  reading  one  and  then  another  and  so  on 
until  they  had  read  them  all,  what  good  you  might  do. 
These  booklets  are  much  condensed,  so  that  they  contain 
as  much  truth  as  many  of  the  dollar  books  now  in  cir- 
culation, meanwhile  their  brevity  qualifies  you  to  read 
them  through  in  a  little  spare  time,  then  to  re-read  and 
study  till  you  actually  appropriate  the  truth  so  that  you 
can  use  it  for  the  glory  of  God  in  preaching  the  ever- 
lasting Gospel. 

Section  Nine. 

"Around  the  World,  Garden  of  Eden,  Latter-day 
Prophesies,  and  Missions." 

It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  you  will  ever  travel  round 
the  world,  as  not  more  than  one  in  a  million  is  likely 
to  make  that  greatly  arduous  and  expensive  tour.  There- 
fore you  cannot  afford  not  to  avail  yourself  of  this  jour- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  455 

ney  by  proxy.  The  Lord  gave  me  an  extraordinary 
memory  and  a  splendid  education,  which  I  have  indus- 
triously endeavored  to  use  for  His  glory.  Three  times 
has  He  permitted  me  to  travel  in  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa 
and  preach  the  Gospel,  1895,  1899  and  1905-6.  In  all 
of  these  tours  I  have  availed  myself  of  every  possible 
opportunity  to  get  acquainted  with  everything  which  will 
be  a  matter  of  interest  to  the  reader.  Therefore  in  this 
large  volume  you"  will  find  an  epitome  of  universal  his- 
tory, from  the  days  of  the  patriarchs  down  to  the  present. 
I  became  a  good  reader  at  the  early  age  of  six  years 
and  especially  fond  of  history,  which  I  read  much  and 
have  remembered  all  my  life.  In  this  book  you  will  find 
the  most  important  historic  epitome  of  all  the  prominent 
nations  of  the  earth,  as  I  purposely  took  them  in  my 
route,  England,  France,  Italy,  Greece,  Turkey,  Syria,  the 
Holy  Land,  Egypt,  Abyssinia,  Abrabia,  Persia,  India, 
Oceania,  China,  Japan  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
Therefore  the  historic  phase  of  this  book  will  absolutely 
prove  to  you  invaluable,  giving  you  most  important  facts 
appertaining  to  all  of  the  nations,  perhaps  as  much  as 
you  can  remember.  Therefore  it  ought  to  be  in  your 
home  for  your  children  to  read  and  study.  You  need 
it  also  as  a  priceless  auxiliary  to  Bible  study.  In  this 
respect  you  will  find  it  more  helpful  than  you  think. 
Among  the  forty-three  chapters,  constituting  that  large 
and  elegantly  cloth-bound  book  of  about  six  hundred 
pages,  you  will  find  about  a  dozen  chapters  directly 
expository  of  Biblical  history.  You  will  find  so  vast  an 
amount  of  information  in  it  which  you  will  not  likely 
strike  anywhere  else  that  you  cannot  afford  to  forego  the 
infinite  benefit  which  you  will  see  by  a  careful  perusal 


456  Autobiography  01? 

and    study  of   that   variant    and    comprehensive   history. 

Besides,  the  book  will  give  you  an  acquaintance  with 
our  mission  fields,  which  will  prove  delightfully  edifying 
and  at  the  same  time  impart  an  inspiration  which  will 
profitably  react  in  copious  blessings  on  your  soul  and 
conduce  to  the  enlargement  of  your  philanthropy,  broad- 
ening your  spiritual  horizon  and  bringing  you  into  closer 
proximity  and  more  immediate  sympathy  with  our  dear 
brothers  and  sisters  toiling  in  the  regions  beyond,  while 
God,  in  His  condescending  mercy,  is  using  them  to 
evangelize  the  millions  sitting  in  darkness  and  in  the 
shadow  of  death. 

You  will  find  in  the  book  five  large  chapters  on  great 
India,  which  is  now  visited  with  the  Pentecost  for  which 
the  missionaries  have  been  praying  and  toiling  for  a  third 
of  a  century.  As  the  Lord  permitted  me  to  travel  six  thou- 
sand miles  in  the  great  interior,  visiting  the  mission  fields 
and  preaching  for  them,  you  will  be  much  interested  in 
the  information  you  will  there  reach.  You  will  also  be 
much  interested  in  the  two  chapters  on  China  and  the 
two  on  Japan,  as  well  as  those  on  Oceania  and  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  I  have  all  my  life  been  studying  and 
trying  to  locate  the  Garden  of  Eden.  I  realize  that  the 
Lord  has  revealed  it  to  me.  In  this  book  you  will  find 
a  chapter  on   that  subject,  expounding  and  locating  it. 

Section  Ten. 

My  "Autobiography." 

In  this  history  of  my  life,  you  will  find  a  variety  of 
almost   everything.      Many   questions   which   you    would 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godfey,  A.  M.  457 

find  it  difficult  to  answer  by  reading  any  of  my  other 
books,  you  will  see  solved  in  this.  My  life  has  been 
quite  stormy  and  eventful.  My  providential  deliverance 
from  the  vices  and  follies  so  fatal  to  childhood  and  youth 
will  prove  helpful  to  parents  in  protecting  their  children 
from  these  terrible  pitfalls  of  Satan.  The  prosecution 
of  a  thorough  collegiate  education,  despite  the  greatest 
financial  impediments,  will  prove  an  inspiration  to  the 
youth  thirsting  for  the  blessings  of  a  classical  education. 
The  clear  and  definite  spiritual  experiences  which  God, 
in  His  mercy,  gave  me,  regeneration  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
and  sanctification  at  thirty-five,  will  prove  instructive, 
encouraging  and  inspiring  to  pilgrims  beating  their 
march  to  the  Better  Land,  and  especially  to  inquirers 
after  the  way  of  truth,  peace  and  holiness. 

My  ten  years'  war  with  the  Campbellites  will  be  lum- 
inous to  all  the  people  who  desire  true  light  and  avail- 
able instruction  on  the  controverted  subject  of  baptism. 
Along  these  lines  the  multitudes  stand  in  imperative 
need  of  solid  and  reliable  information,  helping  them  out 
of  the  difficulties  in  which  Satan's  sophistries  and  fal- 
lacies have  entangled  them. 

My  war  with  the  Seventh  Day  Adventists,  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  use  helpfully  to  people  who  are  entangled 
with  those  heresies. 

The  many  revivals  rehearsed  during  the  long  years  of 
incessant  war  with  Satan,  especially  in  the  great  South, 
will  be  used  by  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  as  an  encoura.- ;e- 
ment  and  inspiration  to  the  young  people  now  engaged 
in  the  same  conflict. 

While  I  have  thus  been  briefly  sketching  over  my 
books    I    remember    one   whose   name    I  have    not    yet 


458  Autobiography  0? 

mentioned,  i.  e.,  "Jesus  is  Coming."  It  is  a  nice  little 
cloth  bound  volume  which  sells  for  twenty-five  cents.  It 
has  received  quite  an  extensive  circulation  and  has  been 
a  blessing  to  thousands.  You  will  find  it  exceedingly 
helpful  as  an  exposition  of  the  prophecies,  expounding 
the  ages  and  epochs  and  periods,  and  showing  conclusively 
that  we  are  living  in  the  time  of  the  end,  and  that  the 
prophecies  have  been  so  fulfilled  that  we  have  even  rea- 
son to  be  on  the  constant  outlook  for  our  Lord's  gloriou- 
appearing  to  take  away  His  waiting  Bride. 

In  this  catalogue  of  my  writings,  it  is  pertinent  to 
observe  that  my  "Baptism,"  which  has  received  a  very 
extensive  circulation  and  is  still  much  in  demand,  is  out 
of  print  because  the  publishers  have  lost  the  stereotypes. 
They  are  hunting  for  them  diligently  and  say  that  if  they 
do  not  find  them  soon,  they  will  make  more ;  therefore 
the  people  may  rely  on  the  circulation  of  the  book  as  in 
former  years. 

These  books  and  booklets,  all  told,  number  forty-eight, 
if  we  are  not  mistaken.  Many  of  the  dear  saints  are 
exceedingly  anxious  to  have  them  all  in  their  private 
library.  This  is  certainly  a  very  wise  decision  on  their 
part,  as  in  that  way  they  will  avail  themselves  of  my 
whole  life  of  constant  toil,  amid  extraordinary  oppor- 
tunities. If  we  did  not  avail  ourselves  of  the  knowledge 
accumulated  by  our  predecessors,  we  would  make  very 
slow  progress  and  accumulate  but  little  during  this  fleet- 
ing life.  In  that  way  the  world  is  constantly  growing 
wiser,  every  generation  availing  itself  of  the  achieve- 
ments wrought  by  its  predecessors.  My  successors  ought 
to  transcend  me  in  the  accumulation  of  knowledge,  be- 
cause they  have  the  benefit  of  my  long  life  of  constant 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  459 

labor,  amid  circumstances  exceedingly  favorable  to  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge.  The  rising  generation  has 
ample  opportunities  from  my  books,  substantially  to 
receive  and  appropriate  and  utilize  everything  that  I 
have  ever  learned.  This  is  God's  method  of  transmitting 
the  inspired  oracles  from  generation  to  generation.  2 
Tim.  2 :  1,  "Therefore,  thou,  my  child,  be  filled  with  dyna- 
mite in  the  grace  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  what- 
soever thou  hast  learned  with  me  through  many  wit- 
nesses, commit  thou  these  things  to  faithful  people,  who 
shall  be  able  also  to  teach  others."  We  thus  learn  God's 
truth  and  then  teach  others,  and  so  it  goes  on  from  sire 
to  son,  indefinitely  to  the  latest  generation. 

My  books  are  plain  and  easily  understood.  Therefore 
with  reasonable  industry,  the  rising  generation  can  sub- 
stantially learn  everything  I  know,  thus  availing  them- 
selves of  my  long  life  of  constant  toil,  amid  facilities  and 
environments  exceedingly  favorable  to  the  acquisition  of 
knowledge.  The  books  written  in  our  day  are  easier  for 
the  present  generation  to  understand  than  those  of  by- 
gone ages,  whose  language  has  largely  become  obsolete. 
All  living  languages  are  constantly  undergoing  changes ; 
therefore  the  writings  of  your  contemporaries  will  be 
more  easily  understood  than  those  who  lived  several  gen- 
erations ago.  Besides,  we  have  the  benefit  of  the  great 
and  important  discoveries  which  have  been  made  in  the 
realms  of  science,  art,  literature  and  also  Biblical  exegesis. 
The  scholars  of  the  present  day  know  some  things  of 
great  importance  revealed  in  the  Bible,  which  John  Wes- 
ley and  his  contemporaries  did  not  know,  because  im- 
portant discoveries  have  been  made  since  their  day,  cor- 
recting errors  in  the  Scriptures  which  they  knew  nothing 


460  Autobiography  of 

about.  As  my  greatest  desire  is  to  trao  mit  to  my  suc- 
cessors all  of  the  knowledge  I  have  accumulated  in  a 
life  of  assiduous  study,  I  am  very  anxious  that  they  shall 
have  the  full  benefit  of  my  books.  In  one  respect  I  feel, 
as  many  able  preachers  have  told  me,  that  my  writings 
convey  more  truth  in  the  same  space  than  any  they  ever 
saw.  My  small  books  are  especially  distinguished  for 
the  characteristic,  multum  in  parvo,  i.  e.,  "much  in 
little,"  conveying  a  heap  of  truth  in  a  few  words.  My 
large  books  you  will  find  cheaper  in  proportion  to  their 
contents  than  any  others  in  circulation. 

Section  EuvVEN. 

Divine  Healing. 

My  experience  along  the  line  of  bodily  healing  abun- 
dantly corroborates  the  great  fact  that  God  is  the  only 
Healer.  He  made  the  body  as  well  as  the  soul,  conse- 
quently He  alone  knows  how  to  repair  them  both,  when 
out  of  order.  While  He  is  the  only  Healer,  it  does  not 
follow  that  physicians  are  not  useful  in  their  place.  We 
need  them  for  diagnosing,  i.  e.,  to  tell  us  what  the  dis- 
ease is.  As  they  have  made  the  human  body  their  life- 
long study,  of  course  they  have  knowledge  appertaining 
to  this  mysterious  organism  which  those  who  have  not 
the  benefit  of  a  medical   education  do  not  possess. 

When  I  was  seventy  years  old,  I  fell  and  broke  my 
arm  till  it  just  turned  back  like  a  broken  stick.  I  im- 
mediately hastened  to  a  physician  who  set  it  and  braced 
it,  putting  no  medicine  on  it  whatever.  Then,  at  my 
suggestion,  he  gladly  knelt  with  me  in   prayer  and  we 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  461 

■turned  it  over  to  the  Great  Physician  to  heal  it.  I  went 
on  preaching-,  carrying  it  in  a  sling.  At  the  expiration 
of  six  weeks  I  returned  to  him.  He  took  the  bandage 
off,  which  he  had  put  on  it,  removed  the  braces,  and 
behold,  it  was  well,  and  not  a  scar  surviving.  He  was 
delighted  to  see  that  it  had  grown  together  precisely 
right,  not  leaving  a  ridge  nor  any  other  mark  to  survive 
as  a  memento  of  the  former  breakage.  Without  that 
medical  attention,  in  view  of  my  age,  I  would  very  likely 
have  lost  the  use  of  it  the  balance  of  my  life.  Yet  he 
applied  no  medicine  to  execute  the  healing,  but  left  it 
with  the  Lord  alone,  therefore,  you  see  I  needed  him  to 
do  a  mechanical  work,  which  my  friends  could  not  have 
done,  as  they  would  neither  have  known  how  to  set  it 
or  brace  it. 

In  tqo  1,  while  preaching  in  Fresno,  California,  I  lost 
my  life  by  the  inhalation  of  illuminating  gas  escaping  in 
my  room  and  was  found  dead  the  next  morning 
at  ten  o'clock.  As  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  taking  break- 
fast, they  did  not  look  for  me  at  the  table,  but  as  1  did 
not  come  downstairs,  the  lady  of  the  house,  feeling  a 
little  uneasy,  at  ten  o'cl<  ick  went  up  and  rapped  at  my 
door,  but  received  no  recpnnse.  Then  opening  she  looked 
in  and  saw  my  shoes  and  knew  I  was  there,  but  in- 
stantly became  affrighted  because  she  could  not  make 
me  speak.  Felicitously  T  was  enjoying  the  hospitality 
of  Dr.  Meux,  a  good  holiness  friend,  who  also  believed 
in  Divine  Healing.  Fortunately  he  was  at  home,  when 
his  good  wife  ran  down  the  stairway  and  told  him  that 
I  was  speechless.  He  ran  up  instantly  and  meeting  the 
gas  suspected  the  trouble  and  upon  examination  found 
that  all  breathing:  had  ceased  and  he  had  a  dead  man 


462  Autobiography  of 

on  his  hands.  Instantly  he  resorted  to  what  physicians 
call  artificial  respiration,  and  after  vigorous  efforts  within 
a  very  short  time  he  saw  me  catch  my  breath,  thus  re- 
suming the  respiration. 

I  knew  not  my  whereabouts  till  forty  hours  from  the 
time  of  my  retirement  had  elapsed.  He  said  that  without 
the  mechanical  operation,  which  he  brought  into  avail- 
ability, I  certainly  never  would  have  breathed  again. 
I  am  satisfied  that  I  was  out  of  my  body. 

My  experience  during  the  time  reminds  me  of  Paul 
in  2  Cor.  12,  when  at  Lystra  they  stoned  him  to  death, 
and  God  raised  him  up  again  to  go  on  and  finish  his 
work.  He  said  that  he  was  caught  up  to  the  third 
heaven,  (**.  e.,  the  heaven  of  saints  and  angels,  the  at- 
mosphere being  the  first  heaven  and  the  astronomical 
spheres  the  second)  where  he  saw  and  heard  things  im- 
possible to  tell, — not  unlawful,  as  the  English  Version  has 
it,  for  there  was  no  law  against  telling  it.  But  it  was 
impossible  to  tell,  because  we  cannot  reveal  heavenly 
glories  through  the  medium  of  mortal  language.  The 
most  of  our  language  here  is  metaphorical  and  symbol- 
ical, in  order  to  reach  us  in  these  material  tenements. 
Not  so  in  Heaven,  where  there  is  no  material  body  but 
all  is  spirituality.  There  the  language  is  all  lightning, 
without  taking  time  to  thunder.  I  verily  believe  that  I 
was  out  of  the  body,  as  when  I  found  myself  in  it  and 
again  in  this  world,  I  deeply  realized  a  mysterious  aliena- 
tion from  transitory  things.  I  resorted  at  once  to  prayer, 
asking  God  to  put  His  hand  on  me  and  re-adapt  me  to 
the  work  He  still  had  for  me  to  do  in  this  world,  as  I 
felt  that  my  congeniality  for  probationary  life  had  been 
marred. 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbsy,  A.  Al.  463 

During  the  time  of  my  alienation  from  the  body,  I 
heard  and  saw  things  which  were  utterly  impossible  for 
me  to  tell,  e.  g.,  music  most  sweet  and  delicious,  but  I 
could  tell  nothing  about  it,  and  I  especially  had  an  un- 
utterable sweetness  in  my  own  soul.  I  believe  I  was 
dead  and  God  used  that  noble  physician  to  raise  me  to 
life  again.  As  a  rule,  the  resurrections  in  the  Bible  took 
place  very  quickly  after  the  expiration,  the  four  days  in 
the  case  of  Lazarus  being  quite  an  exception. 

God,  in  His  wonderful  mercy,  has  healed  my  body  so 
frequently  that  time  would  fail  me  to  tell  you  all  about 
it.  I  will  only  give  you  a  few  salient,  illustrative  cases. 
His  healing  has  been  so  prompt  and  speedy,  that  I  have 
spent  almost  no  time  in  my  whole  life  on  a  sick  bed. 

Thirty-four  years  ago,  two  eminent  physicians,  grad- 
uates of  Cincinnati  Medical  College,  gave  me  up  to  die 
of  serious  lung  trouble,  which  had  developed  into  con- 
jestion  of  the  lungs  by  the  inundation  of  the  blood  from 
the  system,  so  flooding  them  as  to  stop  respiration  in 
the  air  cells,  the  breathing  only  continuing  in  the 
trachea  bronchia  and  the  larger  air  tubes.  I  was  in  a 
protracted  meeting  working  hard  and  was  suddenly  at- 
tacked so  severely  that  the  friends  called  a  physician  and 
he  became  alarmed  and  sent  for  another  to  assist  him  in  a 
case  which  he  regarded  as  exceedingly  critical.  All  pulsa- 
tion had  ceased  in  my  members.  They,  assisted  by  a 
number  of  the  brothers  and  sisters,  labored  six  hours  in 
the  vain  attempt  by  external  friction  and  internal  stim- 
ulants to  stop  the  congestion,  and  restore  the  circulation. 
Then  our  family  physician  coming  to  me.  notified  me 
that  I  would  be  dead  in  two  hours  at  most,  and  was  liable 
to  die  at  just  any  moment.    Then  both  phy  icians  and  all 


464  •  Autobiography  of 

the  people  quit  their  efforts  to  restore  the  circulation  and 
just  waited  to  see  me  die;  meanwhile  the  papers  reported 
that  I  was  dead. 

I  had  been  in  the  sanctified  experience  four  years,  but 
my  dear  wife  had  not  entered  Beulah  Land.  Though 
naturally  timid,  and  having  no  experience  in  leading 
meetings,  she  at  once  took  command  of  the  crowd  and 
observed,  "These  doctors  have  given  my  husband  up  to 
die,  but  I  am  not  willing  to  let  him  go,  and  believe  the 
Lord  has  much  work  for  him  to  do  yet,  so  get  on  your 
knees  all  of  you  and  join  me  in  prayer  for  his  healing, 
that  we  may  prevail  with  the  Great  Physician  to  come 
and  take  the  case  in  hand,  as  I  know  He  can  heal  him." 
The  dear  woman  had  no  light  on  Divine  Healing  except 
what  the  Holy  Spirit  gave  her,  as  at  that  time  there  was 
nothing  said  about  it.  She  kept  them  all  on  their  knees, 
(and  there  was  quite  a  crowd,  as  all  of  my  members  who 
had  heard  came  at  once,)  exhorting  them  like  a  holi- 
ness evangelist  conducting  an  altar  service,  to  hold  on, 
assuring  them  that  the  Lord  would  heal  me.  It  is  an 
obvious  fact  that  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  had  imparted 
to  her  the  gift  of  faith  for  my  healing.  The  doctors  said 
they  knew  no  one  to  survive  pulsation  more  than  eight 
hours.  Already  when  they  ceased  to  minister  for  my 
healing  and  communicated  to  me  the  information  of 
my  speedy  departure,  six  hours  had  elapsed  since  I  had 
gone  into  the  conjestion.  Therefore  all  were  watching 
the  clock  on  the  mantel  which  would  soon  tell  the  last 
moment  the  doctors  said  I  could  live.  But  when  the 
two  hours  had  flown,  instantaneously  the  healing  came. 
The  conjestion  gave  away  and  the  blood  began  to  flow 
from  my  heart  out  through  the  arteries  into  my  members 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  465 

and  the  veins  resumed  their  office,  carrying  it  back  to 
the  heart,  and  thus  complete  restoration  of  the  circulatory 
organs  at  once  supervened.  I  then  spoke  to  our  family 
physician,  standing  twenty  feet  away  and  looking  on 
me,  every  moment  expecting  me  to  cease  breathing,  and 
said,  "Doctor,  I  am  healed."  He  instantly  leaped  to  my 
bedside,  snatched  up  my  arm  and  examined  my  pulse, 
responding,  "That's  so,  you're  healed.  Your  pulse  is 
going  all  right  and  healthy.  You  are  a  well  man."  In 
three  days  I  mounted  my  horse  and  went  away  preaching 
and  have  been  at  it  ever  since.  I  have  consulted  phy- 
sicians in  reference  to  the  conjestion  of  the  lungs.  They 
all  tell  me  it  is  very  difficult  to  cure  and  when  relieved 
nearly  certain  to  come  back.  The  Great  Physician  cer- 
tainly did  give  me  a  miraculous  cure  on  that  occasion,  as 
I  have  never  had  any  lung  trouble  of  any  kind  since.  I 
have  been  preaching  constantly  these  thirty-four  years, 
and  frequently  four  to  six  times  a  day.  I  suppose  I  have 
done  more  speaking  than  any  other  man  in  the  world  in 
this  time  and  never  had  any  lung  trouble. 

It  is  pertinent  here  to  say  that  when  the  doctor  found 
I  was  healed,  he  fell  on  the  floor  and  poured  forth  gush- 
ing tears  of  penitence,  entreating  the  dear  saints  whose 
prayers  had  been  answered  in  my  healing  at  once  to  unite 
for  his  soul,  that  the  Great  Physician  who  had  come  and 
healed  the  body  of  his  patient,  should  in  condescending 
mercy  save  his  soul.  He  was  a  church  member,  but,  as 
he  confessed,  not  saved. 

There  is  no  mistake  about  it,  this  wonderful  Savior 
certainly  healed  my  body. 

As  I  was  preaching  in  Texas  twenty-two  years  ago, 
I  was  stricken  down  suddenly  with  an  awful  attack  of 


466  Autobiography  of 

rheumatism.  In  two  minutes  after  it  struck  me  I  was 
utterly  incompetent  to  stand  on  my  feet  or  walk.  ! 
continued  preaching,  going  on  crutches.  The  Lord 
wonderfully  healed  me.  Though  I  have  never  since 
enjoyed  my  full  former  activity,  yet  I  have  no  rheumatic 
trouble  and  am  considered  an  extraordinary  example  of 
pedestrian  power  and  activity.  After  He  healed  me  it 
was  two  or  three  years  before  the  pain  ceased  to  visit 
me  ever  and  anon,  apparently  a  mere  souvenir  of  by-gone 
dominion.  When  it  would  strike  me,  whether  in  the 
night  suddenly  waking  me  or  in  the  day  time  instantan- 
eously halting  me  in  a  peregrination,  I  made  it  a  rule  at 
once  to  put  my  hand  on  the  place  and  turn  it  over  to 
the  Great  Physician,  asking  Him  to  speak  to  it  and  bid 
it  depart.  As  a  rule  it  would  go  at  least  in  two  or  three 
minutes.  It  has  been  many  years  since  I  have  been 
troubled  with  the  unwelcome  visitor. 

About  a  dozen  years  ago,  a  troublesome  sore,  which 
had  come  on  my  body  under  my  clothing  continued  to 
get  worse  and  being  denuded  gave  me  much  annoyance 
by  the  friction  of  my  clothing.  One  day  at  the  dinner 
table  of  Dr.  Kelley,  a  cousin  of  mine,  an  eminent  phy- 
sician practicing  in  Portland,  Oregon,  I  told  him  about 
it.  He  said,  "Cousin  Will,  after  dinner  I  will  examine 
it."  Upon  examination  he  said,  "Cousin,  that  is  a  can- 
cer and  the  thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  go  at  once  to  Cin- 
cinnati, and  have  it  cut  out.  We  could  do  it  here,  but 
you  are  too  far  from  home  for  a  surgical  operation." 
Then  he  wrote  me  a  letter  to  hand  to  the  surgeons  in 
Cincinnati  (with  whom  he  was  well  acquainted,  as  they 
had  educated  him)  turning  me  over  to  them  for  the  re- 
moval of  the  cancer.    Then  he  proceeded  to  put  a  band- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  467 

age  on  it  for  my  comfort,  preventing  the  friction  of  the 
clothing.  Here  yon  see  how  we  still  need  physicians, 
mechanically  as  well  as  diagnostically  and  hygenically. 
He  did  not  put  any  medicine  on  it  nor  insinuate  that 
his  treatment  would  cure  it,  but  simply  administered  to 
my  present  comfort,  by  fortifying  it  against  friction, 
which  T  had  labored  in  vain  to  do.  I  had  then  a  large 
round  of  appointments  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  through 
the  great  interior,  which  I  had  promised  to'  serve  before 
returning  home.  Therefore,  instead  of  obeying  the 
order  of  my  dear  cousin  of  the  healing  art,  I  went  at 
once  to  the  Great  Physician,  and  turned  over  the  cancer 
to  Him.  I  realized  my  utter  dependence  on  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  inspire  my  faith  for  present  healing,  but  He 
did  it  and  I  so  realized.  I  went  on  preaching  in  Oregon 
and  let  the  bandage  stay  till  it  wore  off,  which  was  about 
a  month.  Then  I  looked  in  vain  for  my  cancer.  It  had 
disappeared,  and  left  only  the  scar,  which  I  carry  to-day, 
the  souvenir  of  my  unwelcome  visitor.  I  found  quite  a 
test  of  my  faith  in  the  healing  of  this  cancer.  I  actually 
had  to  heroically  face  the  music  and  take  the  bit  in  my 
teeth,  soliloquizing,  "Jesus,  I  believe  you've  healed  this 
cancer,''  and  there  abide  and  refuse  to  doubt.  Then  I 
was  enabled  to  appropriate  His  current  axiom,  during 
His  ministry,  Matt.  9 :  29,  "As  your  faith  is,  so  be  it  un- 
to you." 

There  is  no  mistake  as  to  the  great  Bible  doctrine  of 
bodily  healing.  You  will  find  it  in  the  commission  which 
our  Lord  gave  the  twelve  Apostles,  and  also  in  that  of 
the  seventy  disciples.  He  commands  them  all  to  heal 
the  sick,  as  well  as  to  cast  out  demons. 

When   I   was   embarking   from    New   York   for   my 


468  Autobiography  of" 

around  the  world  tour,  I  was  advised  to  carry  a  little 
cholera  medicine,  as  it  is  so  common  in  the  countries  I 
contemplated  visiting.  The  Lord  had  given  me  wonder- 
ful health  till  I  reached  Rangoon,  Burmah,  a  country 
celebrated  for  the  prevalence  of  that  terrible  destroyer. 
Two  of  my  young  men  had  suffered  with  it  in  India. 
Sure  enough  it  struck  me  suddenly  and  unexpectedly.  I 
at  once  took  the  medicine,  but  am  satisfied  it  did  not 
stay  in  my  stomach  a  minute,  as  the  eructation  was  such 
that  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  receive  anything  in- 
ternally. I  need  not  attempt  to  describe  the  sufferings 
characteristic  of  cholera.  Therefore  I  will  leave  you  to 
your  own  imagination,  and  advise  you  to  ask  the  Lord 
to  save  you  from  an  attack. 

When  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  was  certainly  face  to 
face  with  the  King  of  Terrors,  (who  had  no  terror  for 
me),  the  Texas  boys  took  hold  of  me  and  cried  to  God 
for  my  healing.  As  they  held  on,  one  of  them  spoke  out 
and  said  that  he  had  heard  from  Heaven  that  I  was 
healed,  and  the  other  two  soon  joined  him  in  their  tes- 
timony. Cholera  does  its  work  quickly,  and  there  was 
no  time  to  hunt  a  physician.  Eleven  days  subsequently, 
when  I  was  convalescing  quite  slowly,  much  impeded 
by  the  climate,  as  I  was  not  only  in  the  torrid  zone,  but 
had  by  this  time  reached  the  Equator,  where  the  heat 
was  almost  killing  me  in  the  terribly  prostrate  condition 
in  which  cholera  had  left  me,  God  made  Dr.  West,  pre- 
siding elder  at  Singapore,  a  great  blessing  to  my  feeble 
body.  Well  can  I  say,  "In  Thee  we  live,  and  move,  and 
have  our  being."  As  I  am  now  seventy-three  years  old, 
my  bodily  organs  are  failing,  and  if  He  did  not  keep 
His  hand  on  this  frail  tenement  night  and  day,  I  would 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  469 

break  down  and  die.  Oh,  how  wonderfully  He  keeps 
me,  and  enables  me  to  do  more  work  than  almost  any 
young  man.  I  am  a  continual  astonishment  to  myself ; 
but  it  is  -all  His  keeping  power. 

During  all  of  my  ministry,  especially  since  the  Lord 
sanctified  me  thirty-eight  years  ago,  I  have  constantly 
served  Him  in  the  ministry  of  bodily  healing,  as  well  as 
soul  saving.  Throughout  the  South  I  have  preached 
much  in  the  malarial  regions,  where  distressing  fever? 
of  every  kind  abound.  The  Lord  has  everywhere  used 
me  in  the  ministry  of  healing.  In  countless  instances  I 
have  prayed  for  the  people  burning  with  fever,  and  it 
abated  at  once,  and  they  got  up  and  came  to  meeting. 

I  was  called  to  hold  a  protracted  meeting  in  Central 
Georgia.  When  I  began  I  found  a  goodly  number  beau- 
tifully clear  in  regeneration,  but  not  sanctified.  I  began 
at  once  to  preach  that  glorious  doctrine,  corroborating 
it  by  my  testimony  to  the  experience,  when  the  pastor 
spoke  out  in  the  presence  of  all  the  people,  boldly  an- 
tagonizing me.  Of  course  I  did  not  strive  with  him  a 
moment,  as  I  had  to  respect  his  office  and  authority ;  but 
I  inwardly  turned  him  over  to  God  and  cried,  though 
inaudibly,  to  God  to  put  His  hand  on  him  and  help  me 
out  of  the  difficulty.  I  realized  my  audience  in  Heaven 
and  entered  into  inward  rest,  feeling  assured  that  God 
would  manage  the  man  and  conserve  His  own  cause.  In 
twenty-four  hours  we  missed  him  out  of  the  meetings, 
and  the  news  came  that  he  was  sick.  I  went  to  see  him. 
He  saluted  me  kindly  and  said,  "Bro.  Godbey,  I  am 
attacked  with  this  bad  fever  and  will  not  likely  be  with 
you  any  more  in  the  meetings."  I  said,  "My  dear 
brother,  Jesus  is  here  to-day  and  ready  to  rebuke  your 


470  Autobiography  oP 

fever  as  He  did  that  which  burnt  Peter's  mother-in-law." 
I  fell  on  my  knees  and  putting  my  hand  on  him  turned 
him  over  to  the  blessed  Omnipotent  Healer.  While  I 
was  praying  I  felt  the  abatement  of  the  fever,  as  his 
body  began  to  cool  off  and  the  perspiration  to  come  out. 

I  went  away  to  the  meeting  and  had  only  passed 
through  the  introductory  songs  and  prayers  when  he 
arrived  and  took  the  meeting  out  of  my  hand,  electrify- 
ing the  congregation  with  his  thrilling  testimony  to 
bodily  healing,  (which  was  little  known  in  that  country), 
telling  them  of  how  he  was  burning,  as  if  in  a  furnace, 
and  I  had  prayed  for  him  and  told  him  how  to  trust 
Jesus  for  healing,  and  his  fever  was  gone,  and  the  per- 
spiration was  on  his  body,  which  in  that  region  is  re- 
garded as' prima  facie  evidence  that  the  fever  is  gone  to 
stay.  Then  suddenly  running  to  the  altar  he  shouted  as 
he  went,  "Now,  Brother  Godbey,  I  want  that  other  thing 
you  have  been  talking  about."  His  congregation  fol- 
lowed him  as  the  flock  follows  the  shepherd.  He  and 
many  others  got  gloriously  sanctified,  and  he  is  a  leader 
in  the  Movement  to-day. 

You  will  always  find  bodily  healing  a  powerful  auxil- 
iary of  soul  saving.  In  all  of  your  peregrinations,  never 
fail  to  visit  the  sick  and  pray  for  their  healing.  In  that 
way  you  will  reach  many  wicked  people,  otherwise  utterly 
out  of  your  reach. 

When  I  was  conducting  the  Free  Methodist  Camp- 
meeting  at  Emporia,  Kansas,  among  the  people  who  re- 
ceived bodily  healing  was  a  dumb  woman  who  had  not 
spoken  in  two  and  a  half  years,  dear  Sister  Jones,  the 
wife  of  a  Free  Methodist  preacher.    While  I  was  labor- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  471 

ing  with  the  seekers  at  the  altar,  who  had  come  on  the 
invitation  for  bodily  healing,  and  they  had  all  risen  with 
bright  faces  and  some  of  them  even  shouting  testimonies, 
this  one  sister  continued  at  the  altar.  I  did  not  at  that 
time  identify  her  as  the  dumb  one,  but  then  the  presiding 
elder  in  an  undertone  notified  me,  as  I  appealed  to  her 
and  received  no  answer,  that  she  was  the  dumb  sister 
and  he  had  never  heard  her  voice,  and  she  was  seeking 
the  healing  of  her  dumbness.  Then  I  appealed  to  her 
straight :  "Believe,  my  sister,  that  Jesus  now  heals  your 
dumbness  and  gives  you  back  your  speech  which  you 
lost  two  and  a  half  years  ago.  John  Wesley  says,  'We 
are  to  believe  that  He  doeth  it.'  "  Then  she  became  ex- 
ceedingly energized,  evidently  exercising  all  her  spiritual 
powers  of  abandonment,  supplication  and  faith,  at  the 
same  time  falling  back  on  the  carpet  and  turning  her 
face  Heavenward,  the  movement  of  her  mouth  indicating 
the  prayer  of  her  heart.  Then  I  saw  a  light  flash  over 
her  face,  and  her  eyes  sparkle  with  preternatural  bril- 
liancy; when  suddenly  she  leaped  to  her  feet  and  shouted 
louder  than  I  could  and  running  up  and  down  the  aisle 
continued  to  shout  aloud.  All  the  people  present  knew 
her  and  were  so  excited  that  they  shouted  aloud  with  her. 
When  the  noise  somewhat  abated,  a  fine  looking  man 
arose  and  asked  permission  to  speak,  which  was  freely 
granted.  He  proceeded  to  state  that  he  was  that  woman's 
physician,  and  had  done  everything  in  his  power  to 
restore  her  voice,  even  taking  her  off  to  cities  and  having 
her  treated  by  specialists,  and  he  just  wanted  to  testify 
that  her  healing  was  a  miracle  of  the  Lord.  Oh,  how 
that  miraculous   case   of  healing  did   stir  the   city   and 


472  Autobiography  o* 

boom  the  camp-meeting!     It  is  a  great  mistake  of  the 
Lord's  people  to  neglect  bodily  healing. 

Some  of  our  beloved  holiness  people  tell  us  that  heal- 
ing is  not  for  sinners,  but  only  for  Christians.  This  is 
a  mistake,  as  you  see  in  the  case  of  the  ten  lepers  whom 
our  Savior  healed,  only  the  one  who  turned  back  and 
shouted  out  his  joyous  testimony  being  saved.  In  case 
of  sinners,  we  should  always  give  the  preference  to  the 
salvation  of  their  souls,  and  never  encourage  them  to 
seek  healing  and  leave  out  the  salvation,  because  it  may 
be  that  God  needs  the  temporal  affliction  to  bring  them 
to  repentance,  and  save  them  from  Hell.  We  should 
never  fail  to  visit  the  sick  and  pray  for  their  healing,  but 
in  case  of  the  unconverted,  we  should  show  them  the 
infinite  value  of  their  souls  above  their  bodies,  and  ex- 
hort them  to  repent  and  seek  the  pardoning  mercy  of 
God  and  bodily  healing,  too,  assuring  them  of  His 
abounding  love  in  using  the  disease  to  bring  them  to  re- 
pentance and  make  it  an  auxilary  to  their  salvation.  If 
God  did  not  heal  the  wicked,  they  would  soon  all  be 
dead,  because  He  is  the  only  Healer,  and  all  mortals  are 
full  of  diseases,  of  which  sickness  is  simply  their  devel- 
opment. Oh,  how  amiable  the  attitude  of  a  Gospel 
preacher  coming  with  the  panacea  of  all  human  woe, 
healing  not  only  the  soul  but  the  body.  While  Satan  is 
the  author  of  all  physical  ailments,  of  every  form  and 
phase,  the  transcendent  victory  of  Christ  is  gloriously 
illustrated  in  the  sanctification  of  all  diseases  and  physical 
ailments  and  disabilities  to  our  spiritual  good.  If  every- 
body were  to  enjoy  perfect  health  to  the  end  of  life  and 
drop  dead  suddenly  with  no  time  to  repent,  very  few 
would  be  saved.     Such  is  the  awful  power  of  sin,  the 


Rsv.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  473 

dominion  of  Satan  and  the  alarming  potency  of  tempta- 
tion, that  we  need  aches,  pains,  fevers,  chills,  wounds 
and  bruises  to  keep  us  constantly  reminded  of  our  mor- 
tality, on  the  lookout  for  death  and  therefore  robed  and 
ready  every  minute  to  meet  the  Lord. 

All  of  these  sufferings,  with  the  misfortunes  and  ap- 
parent calamities  of  this  transitory  life,  are  included  in 
the  "all  things"  that  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God  with  divine  love.  The  same  is  true  of 
Satan  and  all  his  myrmidons.  Surely  God  makes  them 
a  blessing  to  His  true  people.  This  probation  is  full  of 
mysteries,  which  we  will  never  comprehend  in  this  dark 
valley  of  sin  and  sorrow,  but  will  perfectly  understand 
when  we  reach  the  glorious  Beyond. 

I  here  give  you  the  key  to  this  great  problem  of  Divine 
Healing.  Rom.  8:  n,  "And  if  the  Spirit  of  Him  who 
raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead  dwell  in  you,  He  that 
raised  up  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead  ivill  also  create  life 
in  your  mortal  bodies  through  His  Spirit  who  dwelleth 
in  you." 

As  above  observed,  this  is  the  key  that  unlocks  the 
mystery  and  solves  the  problem  of  Divine  Healing.  The 
normal  attitude  of  bodily  healing  is  with  the  sanctified 
who  have  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelling  in  them.  As  the 
soul  is  the  man  proper,  and  the  body  only  the  tenement, 
therefore  the  normal  economy  of  grace  first  administers 
full  salvation  to  the  soul  and  afterward  heals  the  body 
so  long  as  God  willeth  our  abiding  in  it.  The  bodilv 
healing  of  the  unsanctified  is  His  superabounding  mercy. 
"This  is  mv  will,  even  your  sanctification."  i  Thess.  4:  3. 
Therefor^  the  normal  economy  is  to  save  and  sanctify 
all  who  will  humbly  and  appreciatively  reciprocate  the 


474  Autobiography  otf 

gracious  interventions  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  now,  through 
the  intercession  of  the  glorified  Christ,  freely  given  to 
all  as  a  Convictor  of  the  wicked,  Regenerator  of  the  pen- 
itent and  Sanctifier  of  the  believer,  and  an  indwelling 
Comforter  of  the  sanctified ;  e.  g.,  you  are  living  in  a 
house  in  Cincinnati,  a  break  appears  in  the  roof,  and 
you  have  it  repaired,  then  you  find  another  in  the  wall 
and  calling  in  the  mechanics  you  have  it  repaired  at  your 
own  expense;  the  chimney  falls  down,  and  you  have  it 
rebuilt,  and  so  you  keep  on  repairing  your  house.  But 
the  time  will  come  when  your  house  is  really  out  of 
kilter  and  every  passer-by  recognizes  that  is  needs  re- 
pairing again,  and  still  you  are  not  doing  it,  though  the 
dilapidation  is  getting  worse  all  the  time.  Then  what 
do  your  neighbors  think  about  it?  Why,  they  have 
entirely  quit  talking  about  it,  because  they  have  all  set- 
tled down  in  the  conclusion  that  you  are  not  going  to 
repair  it  any  more,  but  take  it  down  and  build  a  new  one. 
The  application  is  easy.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  dwelling 
with  me  in  my  tenement  of  clay.  It  has  often  been 
seriously  out  of  kilter  and  He  has  repaired  it.  Thirty- 
four  years  ago  physicians  gave  it  up  and  took  hands  off, 
leaving  it  to  die  of  lung  trouble  in  its  worst  form.  He 
repaired  it  so  perfectly  that  I  have  never  had  a  vestige 
of  that  ailment  since.  Sciatic  rheumatism  twenty-two 
years  ago  disqualified  me  to  walk  a  step  without  a  crutch. 
He,  so  far  as  I  can  tell,  perfectly  repaired  my  body,  so 
I  am  entirely  free  from  rheumatism.  Twelve  years  ago 
the  physicians  pronounced  a  troublesome  sore  on  my 
body  a  cancer,  and  told  me  I  must  have  it  cut  out  as 
quickly  as  possible.  I  turned  it  over  to  the  Great  Phy- 
sician,  who  took  it  away,   leaving  only  the   scar  as  a 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  475 

souvenir  of  His  mighty  work.  I  have,  in  cases  innum- 
erable, been  so  afflicted  that  I  was  utterly  disqualified 
for  work,  and  He  healed  me  suddenly.  When  conducting 
a  Free  Methodist  Camp-meeting,  ten  years  ago  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  presiding  elder  and  all  of  his  pastors, 
they  had  me  teaching  the  Bible  morning  and  afternoon, 
and  preaching  every  night,  leaving  them  for  the  street 
preaching  and  the  altar  work.  I  got  up  in  the  morning 
and  found  my  body  so  violently  attacked  that  it  would 
have  been  impossible  for  me  to  have  attended  any  of 
the  meetings.  I  had  a  good  old  Free  Methodist  preacher 
get  down  by  me,  put  his  hands  on  me  and  pray  for  my 
healing ;  which  came,  so  far  as  I  could  tell,  at  the  very 
moment,  at  least  the  ailment  left  me  and  returned  no 
more  and  I  went  along  in  the  three  meetings  that  day. 
God  has  so  wonderfully  healed  me  and  done  it  so 
quickly  that  I  have  lost  less  time  from  His  work,  per- 
haps, than  any  other  person  you  can  find.  In  the  above 
instances  of  healing,  I  stopped  longer  in  the  case  of  that 
lung  trouble  than  any  other,  and  that  was  only  five  days. 
While  my  heart  is  full  of  praises  for  His  miraculous  heal- 
ing, which  is  not  speaking  extravagantly,  as  He  is  a  God 
of  miracles,  and  they  have  not  ceased,  as  some  say,  I 
am  assured  that  if  He  does  not  soon  appear  and  translate 
me,  as  I  am  constantly  watching  and  waiting,  the  time 
will  come  when  this  body  will  be  out  of  kilter  in  some 
way,  and  perhaps  in  many,  and  He  will  not  heal  it. 
Why?  Because  the  house  will  be  no  longer  worth  re- 
pairing and  my  work  will  be  done,  the  battle  over  and 
the  victory  won,  then  I  will  know  Heaven  is  nigh  and 
begin  to  shout  the  approaching  triumph. 


47<r>  Autobiography  of 

"Some  morning  fair  I  am  going  away, 
And   not   gel    back    till    millennial    day," 

For  T  know  I  have  another  building  not  made  with 
hands. 

You  see  the  danger  of  running  the  doctrine  of  Divine 
Healing  into  fanaticism.  I  have  known  good  holiness 
people  to  make  this  serious  mistake.  They  pray  for  the 
sick,  anointing  them  with  oil,  laying  hands  on  them,  and 
because  they  do  not  get  well,  they  so  vehemently  labor 
to  get  them  to  believe  for  healing  that  they  actually  re- 
flect on  their  faith  to  their  spiritual  detriment,  and  al- 
most make  them  believe  that  they  are  backsliders,  be- 
cause they  do  not  get  healed. 

N.  B.  We  are  saved  and  sanctified  by  the  grace  of 
faith,  Eph.  2:8;  Acts  26 : 8 ;  but  we  are  healed  by  the 
gift  of  faith,  1  Cor.  12 : 9.  Now  remember  these  ex- 
traordinary spiritual  gifts,  which  you  find  in  the  Pauline 
catalogue,  1  Cor.  12:8-11,  are  not  necessary  to  salva- 
tion, as  we  are  saved  by  grace  and  not  by  gifts.  The 
normal  attitude  of  these  gifts  contemplates  our  efficiency 
'in  the  salvation  of  others.  Therefore  when  your  work  is 
done  and  God  is  going  to  take  you  to  Heaven  you  will 
have  no  faith  for  your  healing.  The  promise  of  your 
faith,  "so  be  it  unto  you,"  Matt.  9 :  29,  is  just  as  true  of 
the  body  as  the  soul.  The  grace  by  which  we  are  saved 
is  constant  and  abides  forever;  while  the  gifts  are  be- 
stowed for  the  immediate  emergency,  pursuant  to  the 
sovereign  discriminating  grace  of  God.  Hence  you  see 
the  perfect  harmony  of  Divine  Healing  with  the  fact 
that  we  do  not  always  get  healed,  for  if  we  did  we  would 
never  get  to  Heaven.  When  God  is  ready  for  us  to  go  to 
Heaven,  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Custodian  of  His  own  giftsj 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  '   477 

will  no  longer  impart  to  us  the  gift  of  healing.  There- 
fore we  will  have  no  faith  for  healing.  When  the  Lord 
healed  me  of  lung  congestion,  rheumatism,  cancer, 
cholera  and  other  incidental  ailments  too  numerous  to 
mention,  I  had  faith  for  healing  and  He  did  it  according 
to  my  faith.  Matt.  9 :  29.  But  if  He  tarrieth  the  time 
is  near  when  I  will  have  physical  trouble  again  and  no 
faith  for  healing.  Then  I  will  begin  to  shout,  because  I 
will  know  Heaven  is  nigh  and  I  am  fast  approaching  the 
sacramental  millions  beyond. 

"My   latest  sun   is  sinking  fast, 
My  race  is  nearly  run ; 
My  strongest  trials  now  are  past; 
My  triumph  is  begun. 

Chobus. 

"Oh,  come,  angel  bands, 
And  bear  me  away 
On  your  snowy  wings 
To  my  immortal  home. 

"I  know  I  am  nearing  the  holy  ranks 

Of  friends  and  kindred  dear, 
I  have  brushed  the  dews  of  Jordan's  banks, 
The  crossing  must  be  near. 

"Oh,   bear  my  longing  heart  to  Him, 

Who  bled  and  died  for  me, 
Whose  blood  now  cleanseth  from  all  sin, 
And  gives  me  victory. 

"I  know  I  am  nearing  my  Heavenly  home; 

My  spirit  loudly  sings, 
The  holy  ones,  beheld  they  come, 
I  hear  the  noise  of  wings. 

When  you  find  the  saints  are  no  longer  competent  to 
exercise  faith  for  their  healing,  instead  of  discouraging 
them  you  ought  to  shout  with  them.    They  have  no  faith 


478  Autobiography  op 

for  healing  because  God  is  going  to  give  them  Heaven 
this  time  instead  of  health,  which  is  infinitely  better. 
Therefore,  it  is  a  time  of  rejoicing. 

I  saw  this  vividly  illustrated  about  ten  year-  ago,  when 
arriving  at  Scottsville  Camp-meeting,  Texas,  and  finding 
Pastor  Lively,  who  had  been  sanctified  in  my  first  meet- 
ing in  the  state  in  1884,  prostrate  with  that  stubborn 
malarial  fever.  Gathering  around  him  his  wife  and 
daughter  and  other  saints,  we  prayed  for  his  healing; 
myself  and  sister  receiving  faith  for  him  and  telling  him 
so.  He  had  settled  down  under  the  conclusion  that  he 
had  to  lie  there  and  go  through  a  routine  of  medicine, 
break  down  and  go  through  disease,  spending  a  month 
on  his  bed,  as  was  usual.  I  exhorted  him  with  all  my 
might  to  exercise  present  faith  for  his  healing,  assuring 
him  that  it  was  his  privilege  to  have  it  now.  Then  leav- 
ing him  alone  with  the  Lord  and  still  holding  on  to  God 
to  inspire  his  faith  and  heal  him,  I  ran  away  to  the  bed- 
side of  Father  Scott,  nearly  eighty  years  old,  and  prayed 
for  his  healing,  but  received  no  faith.  When  I  was 
about  bidding  him  good-bye,  he  said  to  me,  "Brother 
Godbey,  tell  the  Camp-meeting  people  to  pray  for  my 
soul,  but  not  for  my  body;  for  my  good  wife  died  this 
year,  and,  if  God  will,  I  prefer  not  to  be  healed,  but  to 
go  on  and  join  her  in  the  bright  upper  world  where  I 
will  never  suffer  again." 

I  hastened  back  to  the  parsonage,  as  my  faith  for 
Brother  Lively's  healing  was  actually  booming.  On 
arrival  I  looked  on  the  vacated  bed.  He  had  been  healed 
and  jumped  off  with  a  shout  and  ran  out  to  the  Camp- 
ground, where,  as  usual,  he  stood  in  the  front  of  the 
battle  during  the  ensuing:  campaign.     Of  course  Fathe- 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  479 

Scott  went  to  Heaven  and  I  never  saw  him  afterward. 

You  cannot  be  too  diligent  and  indefatigable  in  your 
visitation  of  the  sick.  That  is  God's  auspicious  time  to 
make  you  a  blessing  both  to  their  souls  and  their  bodies. 
It  is  better  to  obey  the  Word  in  the  use  of  the  olive  oil, 
anointing  them,  although  the  oil  has  nothing  to  do  with 
healing  them ;  it  says  "the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save 
the  sick."  The  utility  of  the  oil  is  to  symbolize  the  Holy 
Ghost,  Who  imparts  the  gift  of  faith  for  healing.  The 
oil  in  bodily  healing  is  precisely  what  the  water  is  in 
salvation.  Both  oil  and  water  are  symbols  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  former  in  bodily  healing  and  the  latter  in 
the  salvation  of  the  soul.  Thus  you  should  invariably 
visit  the  sick  and  obey  the  Scriptures,  putting  hands  on 
them,  anointing  them,  and  praying  for  their  healing, 
assured  that  God  will  answer  your  prayer  and  give  them 
either  health  or  Heaven.  Therefore  do  not  think  your 
prayer  is  in  vain  if  they  are  not  healed,  for  Heaven  is 
infinitely  more  desirable  than  health.  Of  course  when 
you  do  not  happen  to  have  the  oil,  never  make  an  excuse 
for  not  helping  the  sick,  as  it  has  no  more  to  do  with  the 
healing  than  water  baptism  has  to  do  with  salvation. 

As  Christian  workers,  you  not  only  need  the  gift  of 
healing  for  the  sick,  but  all  of  the  nine  gifts,  recorded  in 
1  Cor.  12:8-11,  as  the  other  eight  all  appertain  to  spir- 
itual salvation.  How  can  I  procure  these  gifts?  Get 
in  position  to  receive  them  and  then,  in  utter  abandon- 
ment to  God,  all  the  time  receive  by  faith  the  very  one 
you  need  at  that  moment.  Radical  repentance  and  per- 
fect consecration  put  you  in  position  to  receive  all  of 
these  gifts,  pursuant  to  the  sovereign  discriminating  wis- 
dom of  the  Holy  Ghost.    These  nine  gifts  constitute  the 


480  Autobiography  op 

Christian  soldier's  panoply.  The  Holy  Ghost  is  our 
Omnipotent  Armor-bearer.  He  goes  with  us  to  the 
battle-field  every  time  and  carries  all  of  our  arms,  leav- 
ing  us  perfectly  unincumbered  and  light  as  birds  of 
lise,  just  ready  for  Him  to  use  us  freely  in  the 
ble  battle  with  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil. 
I  fe  imparts  each  gift  the  very  moment  you  need  it.  V. 
it,  "All  these  work  in  you  one  and  the  same  Spirit,  dis- 
pensing unto  each  one  severally  as  He  willeth." 

When  you  have  performed  the  ministry  of  healing, 
by  simple  faith  receive  from  Him  the  gift  of  bodily 
healing.  At  one  moment  you  especially  need  the  gift  of 
wisdom  so  you  may  know  how  to  proceed  in  the  emer- 
gency. At  another  moment  you  especially  need  the  gift 
of  knowledge,  winch  is  insight  into  divine  truth.  While 
faith  is  the  hand  by  which  we  receive  everything  from 
God,  in  that  sense  it  is  the  grace  of  faith.  You  see  it 
is  also  laid  down  in  the  catalogue  of  the  gifts.  In  that 
sense  it  means  the  power  to  believe  God's  promises  and 
to  perfectly  confide  in  Him.  The  fifth  gift  is  the  work- 
ings of  dynamite.  The  Gospel  is  all  dynamite.  Rom. 
1  :  16,  "The  Gospel  is  the  dynamite  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  every  one  that  belicvctli."  The  Sinai  Gospel  is 
the  dynamite  of  conviction,  Calvary  that  of  conversion, 
Pentecost  that  of  sanctification,  and  the  Transfiguration 
that  of  translation.  The  gift  of  prophecy  is  preaching 
in  all  its  forms  and  phases,  to  an  individual  or  a  mul- 
titude. Discernment  of  spirits  enables  you  to  tell  what 
Gospel  to  preach  wherever  you  are,  whether  Sinai  for 
conviction,  Calvary  for  conversion,  Pentecost  for  s?  no- 
tification, the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  get  the  people  r 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  481 

for  translation,  or  Divine  Healing  for  the  benefit  of  the 
sick. 

The  gift  of  tongues,  i.  e.,  language,  is  simply  the  ut- 
terance of  the  Holy  Spirit,  keeping  you  always  supplie  i 
with  words  so  you  do  not  run  out.  The  gift  of  inter- 
pretation is  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  the 
iwords  you  hear  and  read,  giving  you  the  understanding 
you  need.  Of  course  in  the  missionary  fields  where  you 
have  to  learn  a  language  and  serve  as  interpreter,  these 
gifts,  i.  c,  language  and  interpretation,  have  a  broader 
and  deeper  signification  and  become  very  precious  and 
exceedingly  valuable.  It  is  a  common  thing  for  the 
missionaries,  to  their  own  surprise,  to  find  themselves 
preaching  in  the  native  tongue  before  they  have  given  it 
much  attention,  thus  magnifying  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  You  should  be  perfectly  familiar  with  my  books, 
"Spiritual  Gifts  and  Graces,"  "Works  of  the  Holy  Spirit" 
and  "Incarnation  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  These  three 
directly  devoted  to  the  elucidation  of  His  mighty  works 
should  be  substantially  committed  to  memory.  You 
should  add  to  these  "Demonology,"  which  will  post  yon 
on  the  devil's  side  of  the  battle-field.  A  war  history 
which  does  not  describe  both  side?  is  radically  deficient. 
You  cannot  successfully  study  the  mighty  works  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  leave  out  those  of  Satan,  His  inveterate 
foe.  As  Christian  soldiers,  it  is  utterly  impossible  for 
you'to  prove  a  success  without  the  grand  panoply  of  these 
nine  gifts,  which  the  Holy  Ghost  freely  bestows  on  every 
true  warrior  in  Immanuel's  army.  While  a  classical 
education,  when  utilized  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  a  power- 
ful auxiliary,  it  is  in  no  way  essential  to  real  efficiency. 
Regardless  of  the  amount  of  learning  possessed  by  any 


,|82  Autobiography  of 

person,  these  gifts  really  solve  the  problem  of  soul  sav- 
ing efficiency.  If  the  holiness  people  would  duly  appre- 
ciate and  utilize  these  gifts,  they  would  all  be  successful 
preachers  of  the  glorious  Gospel,  for  which  the  millions 
are  perishing.  Human  learning  has  much  to  do  with 
ecclesiastical  position  and  when  fully  consecrated  to  God 
and  used  by  the  Holy  Ghost  it  truly  augments  our  effi- 
ciency for  good.  But  from  the  simple  fact  that  the 
people  who  have  it  are  apt  to  depend  on  it,  we  often 
realize  an  actual  detraction,  rather  than  augmentation, 
of  the  normal  efficiency.  Before  I  received  a  collegiate 
education  I  do  believe  my  preaching  to  the  slaves  was 
more  evangelical  than  after  I  graduated  in  college,  till 
God,  in  His  great  mercy,  sanctified  me  and  gave  me  the 
Holy  Ghost,  thirty-eight  years  ago.  Before  that  notable 
epoch,  in  1868,  I  preached  by  the  power  of  my  intellect 
and  education,  using  them  as  vain  substitutes  for  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Since  that  happy  experience  I  have 
preached  "with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  Heaven," 
1  Peter  1  :  12,  which,  of  course,  I  could  not  do  before 
I  received  Him. 

While  we  exhort  you  to  avail  yourselves  of  all  the 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  pursuant  to  the  positive  man- 
date of  God,  Eph.  6:1,  "Put  on  the  zvhole  armour  of 
God  that  you  may  be  enabled  to  stand  against  the 
methods  of  the  devil,"  we  would  not  minify  a  single 
one  of  these  immortal  nine.  As  this  section  is  on  Divine 
Healing,  I  give  you  a  few  concluding  remarks.  Do  not 
fight  the  doctors,  as  we  need  them  in  three  ways,  diag- 
nostically,  i.  e.,  to  tell  us  what  is  the  matter  with  the 
patient ;  mechanically,  i.  e.,  to  set  and  bandage  broken 
limbs,  and  do  other  things  which  they  alone  understand, 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbby,  A.  M.  483 

and  hygenically,  i.  e.,  to  tell  us  how  to  live  conservatively 
of  the  laws  appertaining  to  health.  1  have  consulted  the 
ablest  physicians  of  the  age  in  reference  to  their  claim 
to  heal  the  sick  and  they  have  uniformly  told  me  they 
have  made  no  such  claim,  but  were  only  humble  helpers 
of  nature,  recognizing  with  me  that  God  alone  can  heal 
the  sick. 

Fighting  the  doctors  instead  of  diseases  is  like  fighting 
churches  instead  of  devils.  While  we  must  be  true  to 
God  and  holiness,  church  or  no  church,  we  have  no  rime 
to  fight  the  churches,  because  we  have  all  we  can  do  to 
preach  the  Gospel  and  get  souls  saved.  Satan  is  very 
anxious  to  get  the  holiness  people  to  fight  the  churches 
so  that  he  can  effectually  obstruct  their  access  to  those 
people,  whereas  God  has  sent  us  to  all.  Therefore  we 
should  be  all  things  to  all  men,  like  Paul,  that  we  may 
save  some.  If  you  will  be  content  to  do  nothing  but.  the 
work  which  God  has  given  you,  with  a  full  heart  flooded 
with  divine  love,  preach  the  Gospel  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
sent  down  from  Heaven,  sparing  sin  nowhere,  but  thun- 
dering against  it  like  a  messenger  from  Heaven  ;  having 
no  time  to  fight  anything  but  sin  and  devils;  constantly 
discriminating  widely  between  sin  and  sinners,  doing 
your  utmost  to  destroy  the  former  and  save  the  latter. 
I  go  your  security  that  you  will  find  more  open  doors 
in  churches  and  elsewhere  than  you  know  what  to  do 
with.  This  war  on  churches  is  the  trickery  of  Satan  to 
turn  your  efforts  away  from  him  and  to  make  you  lire 
on  something  else.  God  has  sent  us  to  save  the  church 
people  as  well  as  outsiders.  All  the  while  you  hate  sin 
with  all  your  power  of  soul,  mind  and  spirit,  so  you  will 
die  in  your  tracks  before  you  will  make  the  slightest  com- 


484  AUTOBIOGRAPHY     OP 

promise  with  it,  whether  in  church  or  out,  you  love  sin- 
ners with  the  everlasting  love  which  brought  Jesus  down 
from  Heaven  to  die  for  them.  Therefore  you  are  con- 
stantly ready  for  martyrdom. 


Chapter  XII. 

PERILS. 

In  my  youth,  a  very  vicious  man  drew  a  gun  on  me, 
pointing  it  so  that  if  it  fired  it  must  hit  me,  as  he  was 
very  near.  He  pulled  the  trigger  and  endeavored  to 
shoot,  but  signally  failed  to  do  anything  but  to  make  it 
snap.  To  my  knowledge  the  gun  had  fired  all  right  but 
a  few  minutes  previously.  Of  course  I  believe  God  put 
His  hand  on  that  dangerous  fire-arm  so  my  enemy  could 
not  kill  me.  As  I  was  always  an  uncompromising 
whiskey  fighter,  running  it  out  of  the  cricuit  which  the 
Conference  gave  me,  saloon-keepers  often  threatened  my 
life  on  different  occasions,  actually  looking  me  in  the 
face  with  terrible  oaths  and  threatening  to  shoot  me  if 
I  did  not  desist  from  my  efforts  to  arouse  all  the  people 
to  destroy  their  business.  I  never  in  my  life  loaded  a 
fire-arm  nor  carried  one.  When  they  threatened  to  kill 
me,  I  simply  told  them  in  kindness  that,  if  they  did,  some 
one  else  would  kill  them.  I  have  frequently  had  mobs 
arise  against  me.  On  one  occasion  I  had  scarcely  pro- 
nounced the  benediction  when  a  dozen  sanctified  men 
rushed  to  me  saying,  "Get  ready  at  once,  we  have  sent 
to  the  livery  for  a  conveyance  to  haul  you  away  as  there 
is  no  train  till  morning."  The  Holy  Spirit,  quick  as 
lightning  said  to  me,  "I  do  not  want  you  to  go  to-night, 
but  abide  in  my  will,"  consequently  I  said  to  the  brethren, 

485 


486  Autobiography  op 

"I  can't  go  with  you;  send  the  conveyance  back."  But 
they  said,  "You  must  go,  for  there  is  a  great  mob,  too 
many  for  us,  now  ready  to  take  you,  and  we  want  to  slip 
you  away  before  they  get  their  hands  on  you."  I  per- 
sisted in  my  refusal  to  go.  They  then  lit  on  a  plan  to 
guard  me  through  the  night  and  for  this  purpose  accom- 
panied me  to  my  lodging.  Having  arrived  in  my  room, 
I  called  all  to  prayer,  lifting  my  voice,  "O  Lord,  these 
good  brethren  have  come  to  guard  me  through  the  night. 
My  body  is  weary  of  toil  and  needs  rest.  I  fear  that 
if  they  guard  me  I  will  not  get  my  needed  sleep.  Now 
I  beseech  Thee,  for  Thy  name's  glory,  dismiss  their  fears, 
send  them  home  and  refresh  them  with  peaceful  slumber. 
Amen."  Then  they  looked  at  each  other  somewhat  be- 
wildered a  minute  or  two.  When  the  oldest  in  the  group 
came  to  me  and,  reaching  out  his  hand,  said,  "Brother 
Godbey,  I  do  not  know  what  better  we  can  do  than  to 
answer  your  prayer.  Good-night."  They  all  did  like- 
wise and  went  away ;  I  retired  and  slept. 

I  have  been  stoned  a  few  times,  and- beaten  with  prairie 
dirt,  when  they  could  not  find  rocks,  and  with  frozen 
potatoes,  when  there  was  a  deep  snow  on  the  ground 
hiding  all  of  the  rocks,  and  often  threatened  with  im- 
mediate death.  It  was  a  common  thing  for  the  brethren 
to  walk  on  either  side  of  me,  especially  in  the  night,  to 
keep  them  from  doing  me  violence,  and  many  a  time  I 
have  known  that  stepping  aside  alone  after  night-fall 
would  cost  me  my  life.  Of  course  there  is  nothing  of 
that  now,  because  I  no  longer  have  the  physical  ability 
to  preach  the  Sinai  Gospel,  which  is  the  only  kind  that 
raises  the  devil.  He  knows  that  his  exposition  will  cause 
his  people  to  get  dissatisfied  and  forsake  him.    He  never 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  487 

gives  them  up  without  a  fight.  He  retreats  only  from 
the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

I  have  been  in  very  dangerous  railroad  wrecks,  but 
never  seriously  injured.  When  I  crossed  the  Atlantic 
the  second  time,  an  awful  storm  struck  us  five  hundred 
miles  this  side  of  Gibraltar  and  was  on  us  for  two  thou- 
sand miles  in  midocean,  lasting  five  days,  during  which 
we  never  saw  a  glimpse  of  sun,  moon  or  stars,  and  could 
not  discriminate  between  midnight  and  noonday.  Moun- 
tain seas  rolled  over  our  ship,  burying  her  in  the  ocean. 
She  often  climbed  the  mountain  to  its  summit  and  then, 
with  quivering  shock,  pitched  down  to  the  bottom  of  a 
deep  valley,  with  awful  crash  like  thunder  peals,  im- 
pressing us  all  that  she  was  breaking  in  two  in  the  mid- 
dle. Every  door  was  closed  water  tight  and  we  could 
only  look  opt  through  the  port  holes,  which  were  all  the 
time  closed  tight,  and  see  the  mighty  mountains  rolling, 
climbing  the  skies,  and  the  billows  leaping  and,  in  the 
bold  language  of  Homer,  the  grand  old  poet,  "lashing  the 
stars."  As  the  mighty  rolling  seas  on  all  sides  were 
white  with  foam,  this  gave  us  the  only  light  we  had. 

Our  ship  was  German,  consequently  all  the  sailors 
spoke  that  language.  As  we  had  sailed  from  Italy,  the 
most  of  the  passengers  were  Italians,  speaking  that 
language.  There  were  but  few  English  speaking  people 
on  board  whom  I  could  understand.  They  were  all  cry- 
ing to  God,  "O  Lord,  just  let  me  put  my  foot  on  land 
once  more  and  I'll  never  sail  again."  They  asked  me 
why  I  did  not  join  them  in  that  prayer.  I  told  them 
because  I  did  not  know  but  He  might  want  me  to  sail 
again,  and  if  so  I  certainly  would. 

I  was  exceedingly  happy  during  those  memorable  five 


488  AUTOBIOGRAPHY    OF 

days.  I  never  before  nor  since  realized  so  profound  an 
apprehension  of  the  Divine  presence,  as  when  1  looked 
through  the  port  holes  and  saw  the  mountain  billows 
white  as  snow  chasing  each  other.  It  seemed  the  great 
ocean  was  plowed  to  the  bottom,  and  that  I  could  actually 
realize  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  on  His  chariot  of 
foam,  drawn  by  cyclone  steeds,  commanding  the  great 
ocean  to  rise  and  fall,  roll,  heave  and  swell  at  His  bid- 
ding. The  boundless  ocean  is  to  me  the  grandest  symbol 
of  His  incomprehensible  Divinity  I  have  ever  contem- 
plated. 

That  ship  was  a  great  German  Lloyd  with  thirty-six 
boilers.  When  I  sailed  again  four  and  one-half  years 
afterward,  I  found  that  she  had  been  soon  after  that 
voyage  condemned  by  the  Board  of  Admiralty  as  un- 
seaworthy  and  laid  aside,  and  this  was  one  of  the  last 
runs  she  ever  made.  When  she  cracked  so  frightfully. 
loud  as  thunder-claps,  terrifying  the  people  with  the  im- 
pression that  she  was  breaking  to  pieces,  if  the  sound 
had  been  verified  by  the  fact,  how  quickly  would  we  all 
have  gone  to  the  bottom  of  the  great  ocean,  there  to 
await  the  Judgment  trump,  "When  the  sea  shall  give  up 
her  dead,"  and  the  old  ocean,  responsive  to  the  arch- 
angel's trump,  will  give  one  tremendous  heave  and  from 
the  deep  recesses  of  his  coraiine  beds,  throw  forth  his 
clumbering  millions.  But  I  always  had  faith  for  God  to 
put  His  omnipotent  arm  under  the  ship  and  keep  her 
from  going  down. 

Once  in  Georgia  I  was  booked  to  go  on  a  train,  but 
something  detained  me  till  the  next  one.  When  I  heard 
that  the  train  was  wrecked  and  a  number  of  people 
killed  and  others  wounded,  I  saw  the  hand  of  God  in 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  489 

keeping  me  over.  My  whole  life  has  been  amid  perils 
seen  and  unseen,  but  He  has  in  mercy  kept  me  till  I  can 
finish  my  work.     Glory  to  His  wondrous  name! 


Chapter  XIII. 
LIFE'S  EVENING. 

I  am  now  in  it  and  appropriating  the  quaint  maxim, 
'"Old  men  for  counsel  and  young  men  for  war."  Preach- 
ers, as  a  rule,  are  superannuated  and  laid  on  the  shelf 
before  they  reach  my  present  age.  If  the  Lord  had  not 
in  mercy  sanctified  me  in  1868,  I  would  have  been  laid 
on  the  shelf  in  the  Kentucky  Conference  ere  this.  But 
instead  of  superannuation,  (which  is  only  given  when  the 
preacher  is  so  worn  out  that  he  is  no  more  wanted  by 
any  of  the  people,)  instead  of  that  state  of  things  in  my 
own  case,  I  have  wide  open  doors  enough  for  a  thousand 
men, — splendid  openings  for  ministerial  usefulness  which 
I  would  be  much  delighted  to  enter.  Why  do  not  all  the 
preachers  get  sanctified,  as  a  sure  guaranty  against  sup- 
erannuation, which  they  all  dread  worse  than  their  cof- 
fins. Only  get  sanctified,  and  you  will  never  be  super- 
annuated. 

I  am  still  as  competent  to  preach  the  Calvary,  Pen- 
tecost and  Transfiguration  Gospels  as  I  ever  was.  I've 
only  had  to  give  up  the  Sinai  Gospel,  which  requires 
thunder,  in  order  to  its  real  efficiency,  as  well  as  the 
lightning.  We  frankly  admit  that  the  thunder  does  not 
kill  anything ;  all  that  is  reserved  for  the  lightning  to  do, 
but  it  is  exceedingly  useful  to  scare  the  devil,  which  is 
of    great    importance,    if    possible    to    precipitate    him 

490 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  491 

into  a  stampede.  The  Sinai  Gospel  actually  needs  a 
trumpet  voice,  which  I  have  possessed  in  my  youth  and 
vigor,  but  it  is  worn  out  and  gone.  The  Sinai  Gospel, 
whose  province  is  conviction,  is  the  potent  enginery  to 
reach  the  impenitent,  wicked  people.  The  awful  roar 
of  Sinai's  thunder  peals,  accompanied  by  the  trembling, 
quaking  earth  and  the  rending  rocks,  is  God's  provision 
to  wake  up  the  souls,  by  millions,  slumbering  on  the 
brink  of  Hell.  This  is  the  Lord's  war  against  Satan,  in 
which  the  young  people  with  crocodile  constitutions,  alli- 
gator mouths  and  lion  voices,  find  a  boundless  open  door 
to  walk  in  and  enjoy  the  grandest  privilege  in  the  uni- 
verse, 1.  e.,  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  Him  who  gave 
His  life  for  us  all.  I  have  toiled  long  and  hard  at  the 
front  of  the  battle,  seeking  the  thickest  of  the  fight, 
where  the  shot  and  shell  rattled  down  like  a  hail  storm, 
shouting  the  battle  cry, 

"Come  one,  come  all, 
This  rock  shall  fly 
From  its  firm  base, 
As  soon  as  I." 

"The  glory  summons  to  the  martial  plain, 
The  field  of  battle  is  the  field  for  man  ; 
Where  heroes  war,  the  foremost  places  claim, 
The  first  in  danger  and  the  first  in  fame." 

This  was  written  by  the  melodious  old  Homer,  three 
thousand  years  ago,  who  had  in  his  mind  the  warrior's 
fame.  Of  course  we  now  substitute  for  it  the  glory  of 
God. 

The  little  remaining  remnant  of  my  pilgrimage  legiti- 
mately belongs  to  the  didactic  department  of  the  Gospel. 
To  preach  means  to  proclaim,  and  realizes  the  value  of 
a  clear,  stentorian  voice.     Teaching  is  another  significa- 


492  Autobiography  of 

tion  of  Gospel  preaching,  which  only  requires  vocal  power 
enough  to  be  heard  and  understood.  The  example  of  our 
Savior  along  this  line  gives  us  all  a  lesson  of  pre-eminent 
value  and  importance.  Three  days  would  have  been 
sufficient  for  Him  to  come  and  lay  down  His  life  to  re- 
deem the  world  from  sin,  death  and  Hell ;  but  we  see 
He  imperatively  needed  those  three  years  that  He  might 
have  time  to  teach  His  disciples  so  to  qualify  them  to 
launch  the  Gospel  Church.  During  this  time  He  was  a 
constant  fugitive  from  His  enemies  who  were  after  Him 
thirsting  for  His  blood,  having  resolved  to  kill  Him,  and 
His  friends  who  were  on  tiptoe  to  crown  Him  King,  in 
which  case  the  Romans  would  have  put  Him  to  death 
under  charge  of  high  treason.  He  often  alluded  to  the 
fact  that  His  time  had  not  yet  come.  Hence  we  see  how 
amid  the  great  conceivable  difficulties  He  prolonged  His 
life  those  three  years,  in  order  to  finish  that  curriculum  of 
instruction,  which  was  absolutely  indispensable  to  qualify 
His  apostles  for  the  great  and  responsible  work  of 
launching  the  Gospel  Church. 

God  says  in  the  Old  Testament,  "My  people  perish  for 
the  lack  of  knowledge,"  and  in  the  New  Testament, 
"Study  to  show  thyself  approved  of  God,  a  ivorkman  that 
need  not  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  Word  of 
Truth."  2  Tim.  2:  15.  While  the  world  and  the  worldly 
churches  need  salvation,  and  consequently  the  Sinai 
Gospel,  which  is  the  grand  sine  qua  non,  of  conviction, 
without  which  there  can  be  no  conversion,  and  of  course 
no  sanctification,  the  Holiness  people  and  all  of  the  really 
sanctified  in  all  the  Churches  need  teaching  most  imper- 
atively, not  only  to  qualify  them  to  preach  the  Gospel 
and  save  the  Hellward  bound  millions,  but  to  feed  their 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  493 

souls  so  they  will  flourish  like  trees  planted  by  the  river- 
side, bringing  forth  fruit  in  their  season  and  thus  for- 
tifying them  against  apostasy. 

The  good  shepherd  who  understands  his  business,  will 
make  the  care  of  his  flock  the  great  speciality.  If  he 
gives  them  plenty  of  wholesome  food  and  pnre  water, 
and  protects  them  from  wild  beasts  and  robbers,  they 
will  multiply  till  the  lambs  will  skip  over  all  the  hills  and 
race  across  the  plains,  like  Texas  ponies.  The  unwise 
shepherd  goes  for  numbers,  seeking  quantity,  rather  than 
quality.  God  is  our  infallible  exemplar,  who  always 
goes  for  quality  instead  of  quantity.  If  we  can  take  care 
of  our  Holiness  people,  teaching  them  the  blessed  Bible 
faithfully  and  heroically  and  diligently  fortifying  them 
against  the  dangerous  heresies,  in  whose  insidious  man- 
acles Satan  keeps  Hell  constantly  embargoed,  we  will 
soon  have  a  panoplied  army  marching  forth  with  ban- 
ners flying,  unfurled  to  the  breezes  of  every  land  and 
clime,  marching  on  to  the  conquest  of  the  world  for 
our  glorious  Christ,  who  has  bought  it  with  His  own 
blood  and  now  intercedes  for  it  at  God's  right  hand. 

The  Bible  School  phenomenon  in  the  Holiness  Move- 
ment is  most  encouraging.  Such  schools  are  springing 
up  everywhere  like  mushrooms  in  the  night,  not  only 
throughout  this  country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
and  from  the  Gulf  to  British  America,  but  they  are  also 
:lotting  the  dark  pagan  empires  of  the  antipodian  world. 
We  have  now  twenty-five  hundred  Christian  schools  in 
heathen  lands,  attended  by  a  million  of  heathen  boys  and 
girls.  Do  you  not  see  how  the  salvation  and  sanctifica- 
tion  of  these  heathen  pupils  constitute  the  golden  key 
that  unlocks  the  mystery  and  solves  the  problem  which 


494  Autobiography  of 

has  puzzled  Christendom  from  the  Apostolic  age,  i.  e., 
the  evangelization  of  the  whole  heathen  world?  We  only 
have  about  a  thousand  millions  in  all  heathendom.  If 
we  can  only  get  these  million  students  saved  and  sancti- 
fied, we  will  have  a  preacher  for  every  thousand  pagans 
in  the  whole  world.  We  certainly  have  these  million 
in  our  own  hands  and  do  enjoy  the  facilities,  evolving 
the  gracious  possibility  of  saving  and  sanctifying  them 
all. 

I  have  already  stated  that  I  am  bewildered  with  a 
thousand  open  doors,  inviting  me  to  enter  and  labor 
for  the  salvation  of  souls.  All  of  the  Bible  Schools  and 
Holiness  Colleges  in  the  whole  world  keep  the  doors 
wide  open  and  the  Macedonian  cry  ringing  in  my  ears, 
"Come  over  and  help  us."  The  last  year  I  spent  travel- 
ing around  the  world  and  preaching  in  all  lands,  there- 
fore, I've  done  no  work  in  America.  Now,  as  I  con- 
template entering  the  field  immediately,  I  am  literally 
bewildered  with  calls.  Not  only  the  cities  and  large 
towns  throughout  the  continent,  inter-ocean,  but  these 
Bible  Schools,  which  have  sprung  up  everywhere  and  are 
multiplying  so  rapidly  that  it  is  difficult  even  to  keep  a 
list  of  them  before  me  for  prayer,  which  I  so  much 
desire  to  do,  are  calling  me,  and  how  to  pass  by  any  of 
them  in  my  peregrinations  across  the  continent  breaks 
my  heart  to  contemplate.  Many  of  these  Bible  Schools 
and  Holiness  Colleges  beg  me  hard  to  stay  with  them  all 
the  time.  As  I  feel  debtor  to  them  all,  realizing  the  en- 
dearing relationship  of  spiritual  consanguinity,  therefore, 
I  cannot  get  my  consent  to  give  all  of  my  time  to  any 
one  of  them,  lest  I  might  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  who  has 
established  all  of  them,  that  He  may   teach   the  people 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  495 

His  own  Word  and  qualify  them  to  go  and  teach  others, 
as  this  is  His  method  of  evangelical  succession,  2  Tim. 
2:  2,  "The  things  zvhich  thou  hast  learned  with  me,  com- 
mit thou  to  the  faithful  people,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach 
others."  I  do  very  much  need  all  of  my  time  to  spend 
'teaching  the  Bible  in  these  different  schools,  which  the 
blessed  Holy  Spirit  has  founded  since  the  Movement  has 
rolled  the  revival  wave  over  the  world  and  brought  full 
salvation  within  the  reach  of  millions.  But  if  I  were 
to  confine  my  labors,  to  the  schools,  I  would  have  to  give 
up  the  churches,  which  the  blessed  Holy  Spirit  has  or- 
ganized throughout  the  Movement,  which  now  girdles 
the  world.  Hence  you  see  how  multitudinous  are  the 
open  doors  on  all  sides,  ringing  out  their  Macedonian  cry, 
"Come  over  and  help  us." 

I  would  be  most  delighted  to  spend  life's  evening  with 
my  dear  old  companion,  whom  God  has  made  an  angel 
of  mercy,  shining  along  my  pilgrimage  these  forty-four 
years ;  and  meanwhile  my  preaching  son  and  son-in-law 
do  beg  me  hard  to  quit  work  and  give  them  a  chance  to 
take  care  of  me  and  their  mother  as  long  as  we  live. 
Here  you  see  what  sanctification  does  for  us.  If  I  did 
not  have  it,  I  would  certainly  accept  that  kind  offer  and 
superannuate,  but  it  really  makes  us  young  forever, 
opening  for  me  a  thousand  delectable  doors,  which  I 
would  be  so  delighted  to  enter,  as  I  love  the  work  so 
clearly  that  I  surely  will  continue  on  the  battle-field  till 
the  chariot  descends  and  the  angels  bid  me  mount  aboard. 
Therefore  life's  evening  with  the.  sanctified  is  infinitely 
better  than  the  most  successful  blooming  youth  with- 
out it. 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  student  in  college  I  read 


496  Autobiography  op 

in  the  Latin  language  in  the  course  of  study,  "Cicero  on 
Old  Age."  This  prince  of  Roman  orators  and  champion 
statesman  with  his  trenchant  pen  undertakes  to  show  up 
the  possibilities  of  the  bright,  cheerful,  contented,  happy, 
sunshiny  old  age.  His  argument  is  really  able  for  a 
heathen  philosopher.  He  shows  up  the  facilities  of 
science,  literature,  philosophy,  poetry,  aesthetics  and  the 
pagan  religions  to  fill  old  age  with  perennial  flowers, 
ever  ripening  fruits,  and  glorious  sunshine.  However 
the  end  of  his  life  by  suicide  casts  a  shadow  over  all  of 
his  eloquent  and  able  writings  on  the  serenity,  tranquility, 
placidity,  quietude  and  resignation  which  characterized 
the  declining  years  of  the  philosopher.  When  the 
decisive  battle  of  Actium  sealed  the  doom  of  the  Re- 
public in  which  Cicero  had  spent  his  life,  and  he  saw 
it  go  down  in  the  gloom  of  an  eternal  night  and  the 
Monarchy  superceded  it,  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  a 
broken  heart  he  committed  suicide.  If  that  great  orator 
and  statesman  had  only  enjoyed  the  light  of  Christianity, 
he  could  have  shouted  victory  for  his  own  soul  while 
the  Republic  went  down.  No  tongue  can  tell  the  un- 
utterable glories  of  the  full  salvation  which  sweetens 
declining  years,  and  makes  us  bloom  in  immortal  youth 
forever. 


Chapter  XIV. 

THE  EXODUS. 

It  is  more  suitable,  as  a  rule,  to  write  the  life  of  a 
person  after  the  journey  is  over,  because  we  then  have 
access  to  all  of  the  facts.  Now  I  have  gone  through 
mine  from  the  cradle  to  the  final  exodus,  i.  e.,  the  de- 
parture out  of  this  world,  which  someone  else  will  have 
to  write,  after  I  shall  have  exchanged  the  battlefield  for 
the  Mount  of  Victory,  labor  for  rest  and  earth  for 
Heaven.  Of  course  the  writer  of  this  last  chapter,  if 
it  ever  is  written,  must  have  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  subject  of  the  biography.  Rev.  H.  C.  Morrison, 
of  the  "Pentecostal  Herald,"  has  known  me  intimately 
all  his  life.  I  am  twenty-four  years  his  senior.  I  heard 
him  say  in  a  great  sermon  which  he  delivered  to  an  im- 
mense camp-meeting  audience,  that  I  passed  him  while 
he  was  a  little  bare-foot  boy,  put  my  hand  on  his  head, 
lifted  up  my  voice  and  said,  "O  Lord,  make  a  preacher 
of  this  boy."  He  says  that  moment  he  heard  the  call 
from  Heaven,  which  never  evanesced  from  his  juvenile 
mind,  but  he  held  on  and  developed  into  the  noble 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  we  all  so  much  appreciate.  He 
is  not  only  my  Gospel  son,  but  the  consanguinity  of  my 
dear  wife ;  she  and  his  mother  both  being  Durhams. 
members  of  the  same  good  old  English  family,  their 
grandfather,    John   Durham,    the   first   Methodist   class- 

497 


498  Autobiography  o? 

leader  in  Kentucky,  coming  over  the  Cumberland  Moun- 
tains from  old  Virginia,  with  Daniel  Boone,  the  pioneer. 
As  life  is  uncertain,  I  will  in  this  connection  also  give 
the  name  of  my  son-in-law,  Rev.  F.  M.  Hills,  so  he  and 
Brother  Morrison  can  mutually  follow  the  leading  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  matter,  the  one  serving  as  the  alternate 
of  the  other. 

I  will  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  write 
my  last  will  and  testament.  In  the  providence  of  God 
all  of  our  children  have  gone  to  Heaven  but  one,  my 
son  William  H.,  who  is  a  faithful  preacher  of  the  Gospel, 
and  has  faith  in  God  to  feed  him  like  He  feeds  the  birds 
and  to  clothe  him  like  the  lilies.  Therefore  I  shall  not 
will  him  nor  any  of  my  consanguinity  one  cent,  but  leave 
it  all  for  the  missionaries,  when  I  am  gone.  I  have  no 
real  estate,  never  did  own  but  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  acres  of  land,  and  donated  every  inch  of  it  to 
Kentucky  Wesleyan  College,  many  years  ago,  not  re- 
serving enough  to  bury  me,  and  paying  the  lawyer  five 
dollars  to  make  a  clear  warranty-deed  to  the  Board  of 
Education,  thus  turning  it  over  to  them  forever,  to 
use  in  the  interest  of  the  college. 

While  I  own  nothing  in  the  world  but  books,  those 
of  my  writing  all  belong  to  the  publishers.  My  books 
are  made  by  four  different  publishing  houses,  the  "Re- 
vivalist" Office  in  Cincinnati,  the  "Pentecostal  Herald" 
:i  Louisville,  "The  Living  Waters"  Office  in  Nashville, 

id  the  "Pickett  Publishing  House"  in  Louisville.     Pur- 
suant to  my  own  convenience.  I  purchase  from  the  other 
'iree  houses  in  large  quantities  and  ship  them  to  Cincin- 
nati, where  I  keep  them  in  a  depository,  subject  to  my 
call  in  my  peregrinations,  as  otherwise  I  would  have  to 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  499 

order  from  four  houses  instead  of  one,  which  would  be 
too  much  trouble.  Consequently  I  constantly  have  sev- 
eral thousand  copies  from  those  houses  on  deposit,  wait- 
ing my  calls.  Of  course  I  expect  to  move  along  preach- 
ing, teaching  the  Bible  and  circulating  the  books  of  my 
own  writing,  till  He  takes  me  away.  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  am  a  book-agent,  as  I  only  circulate  the  books  of  my 
own  writing  for  the  solitary  motive  of  preaching  the 
Gospel  by  pen  as  well  as  speech.  It  has  been  many  a  day 
since  I  circulated  any  books  except  my  own  writing,  from 
the  simple  fact  that  I  have  so  many  that  I  really  have  no 
time  to  devote  to  any  others.  Before  I  ever  dreamed 
of  writing  a  book,  seeing  how  my  converts  backslid,  or 
rather  starved  out  for  the  want  of  soul  pabulum,  I  pro- 
ceeded to  circulate  John  Wesley's  "Plain  Account  of 
Christian  Perfection,"  which  I  used  to  purchase  by  the 
thousand  and  carry  with  me  in  all  of  my  peregrinations, 
finding  it  so  helpful  to  the  people  whom  the  Lord  had 
blessed  in  my  meetings. 

Dr.  G.  D.  Watson  wrote  his  "Holiness  Manual"  before 
I  began  to  write  books,  or  even  thought  of  it.  In  my 
circuit  I  happened  to  run  on  a  copy,  stopped  on  the  spot 
till  I  read  it  through  and  seeing  that  its  plain  teaching 
was  the  thing  my  people  needed,  I  wrote  him  a  postal 
card  ordering  a  thousand  copies.  He  answered  me  stat- 
ing that  he  supposed  I  had  made  a  mistake  and  meant 
one  hundred.  I  responded  to  him,  "No,  I  want  one 
thousand."  Then  he  wrote  me  that  he  did  not  have  a 
thousand,  but  would  send  me  all  that  he  had  and  the 
balance  as  soon  as  he  could  have  them  made.  I  soon 
circulated  the  thousand  copies  and  then  ordered  two 
thousand.    Meanwhile  the  people  to  whom  I  was  preach- 


500  Autobiography  op 

ing  begged  me  hard  to  write  something,  as  they  said  that 
they  understood  my  teaching  better  than  any  they  had 
ever  heard,  and  wanted  it  in  print  so  that  they  could 
study  it. 

The  first  book  I  ever  wrote  was  my  "Baptism,"  which 
I  designed  for  a  pump,  as  Kentucky  had  been  under 
swimming  water  a  half  century,  (water  salvation  preach- 
ed by  the  Campbellites,)  so  we  just  had  to  go  to  pump- 
ing to  get  it  dry  enough  to  kindle  a  fire,  as  all  true  re- 
ligion is  the  blessed  Holy  Ghost  and  His  fire,  which 
burns  up  all  sin,  defeats  Satan,  bankrupts  Hell  and  saves 
us  forever.  Oh,  the  blessedness  of  the  "one  baptism," 
(Eph.  4:  5)  which  Jesus  gives  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
fire,  (Matt.  3:4)  by  which  He  baptizes  all  of  His  true 
and  faithful  people  into  one  body  and  makes  us  to  drink 
in  one  Spirit,  (1  Cor.  12:  13).  Then  I  wrote  my  "Sanc- 
tification,"  which  really  proved  the  pioneer  in  the  dear 
old  Sunny  South  and  the  great  West.  This  was  followed 
by  "Holiness  or  Hell,"  which  awfully  stirred  Satan,  and 
the  Lord  wonderfully  used  it,  especially  with  the  preach- 
ers. Soon  I  wrote  "Victory"  over  the  world,  the  flesh 
and  the  devil,  whose  circulation  was  really  paradoxical 
for  the  rapidity  and  the  extent. 

As  the  Lord  has  led  me  hither  and  thither  throughout 
this  continent  preaching  the  living  Word,  He  has  thus 
permitted  me  to  use  the  two-edged  sword,  dispensing 
His  precious  truth  both  by  speech  and  pen.  It  seems  to 
me  that  I  must  be  the  happiest  old  man  in  the  world, 
because  He  lets  me  preach  so  much.  When  T  dictate  a 
book  I  am  preaching  to  an  audience  of  fifty  to  a  hun- 
dred thousand  people,  i.  c,  all  who,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  will  ever  read  the  book.     Besides  I  teach  the  Bible 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  501 

every  day  and  preach  every  night,  thus  doing  the  double 
work  of  a  teacher  and  a  preacher  viva  voca.  Preaching 
the  Gospel  is  the  sweetest  and  richest  blessing  this  side 
of  Heaven.  I  would  rather  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor  in  the  slums  and  sweep  the  streets  for  my  living 
than  to  be  a  millionaire  and  not  preach.  I  have  but  one 
motive  in  writing  and  circulating  books  and  that  is  to 
preach  this  glorious  everlasting  Gospel  that  does  not  run 
a  hoax  on  the  people  and  deceive  them,  but  saves  them 
gloriously  with  an  everlasting  salvation.  The  reason 
why  I  circulate  my  books  is  because  they  clearly  expound 
and  lucidly  teach  the  plain  way  of  salvation  and  at  the 
same  time  fortify  the  people  against  the  multitudinous 
heresies  which  Satan,  through  his  emissaries,  is  pro- 
pagating both  boldly  and  clandestinely.  Through  his 
false  prophets  and  counterfeit  preachers,  scattered 
throughout  the  country,  he  is  preaching  "no-hellism," 
"water  regeneration"  and  many  other  insidious  forms  of 
occult  and  seductive  heresies  and  diversified  ad  cap- 
tandum  dogmatisms,  hatched  in  the  bottomless  pit. 

As  I  have  several  thousand  copies  of  my  books,  which 
these  other  houses  make  and  I  have  brought  here  (to 
Cincinnati)  for  my  own  convenience  in  circulating  them, 
doubtless  when  I  wind  up  there  will  be  quite  a  lot  of 
them  on  hand.  All  of  these  I  here  and  now  will  to  the 
missionaries  in  all  heathen  and  Mohammedan  lands,  to 
be  distributed  by  the  Missionary  Board  of  the  "Interna- 
tional Apostolic  Holiness  Union,"  according  to  their 
godly  judgment.  I  also  will  to  them  all  of  the  royalty, 
which  shall  accumulate  on  my  books,  indefinitely,  after 
my  exodus,  also  to  be  distributed  by  the  I.  A.  H.  U. 
through  their  Missionary  Board,  according  to  their  godly 


502  Autobiography  oP 

judgment.  This  is  certainly  fair  and  impartial,  because 
it  is  the  privilege  of  all  the  holiness  people  throughout 
the  world  to  be  identified  with  this  I.  A.  II.  U.  If 
you  are  not  now  a  member  of  it,  you  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  address  them  at  the  "Revivalist  Office,"  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio,  and  they  will  give  you  a  hearty  welcome. 
Then  you  will  have  an  equal  chance  to  participate  in  the 
benefits  of  my  will  in  the  interest  of  your  missionaries, 
as  in  this  matter  there  will  be  no  discrimination  whatever. 

N.  B.  Membership  in  the  I.  A.  H.  U.  will  not  conflict 
with  your  membership  in  your  "local  Church  or  Holi- 
ness Association,  or  even  our  National  Association,  as 
this  is  International,  in  order  to  unite  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  in  the  common  cause  of  universal  salvation. 
Therefore  none  of  the  holiness  people  in  this  country, 
or  any  other,  have  anything  to  lose  by  membership  in 
this  I.  A.  H.  U.,  but  everything  to  gain.  It  is  in  perfect 
harmony  with  the  United .  States  motto,  "E  Pluribus 
Uintni,"  "One  out  of  many;"  "United  we  stand,  divided 
we  fall ;"  "In  union  there  is  strength." 

Holiness  people  should  all  go  into  this  Association  for 
the  mutual  encouragement  of  one  another.  Some  of 
our  holiness  people  who  are  good,  true  and  all  right  are 
not  members  of  any  church  organization.  Therefore  this 
universal  Association  will  be  helpful  to  them  as  well  as 
to  all  others  in  the  way  of  Christian  fellowship,  which 
is  one  of  the  beautiful  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
Association  has  no  creed  but  the  New  Testament,  no 
authority  but  the  Word  of  the  Lord.  Our  National  As- 
sociation is  deficient  in  the  fact  that  its  name  would 
restrict  it  to  this  great  and  mighty  Yankee  Nation.  The 
"Holiness   Movement"   is   now   well   represented   in   all 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  503 

heathen  lands.  It  certainly  will  be  well  pleasing  to  the 
Lord  and  encouraging  to  the  dear  saints  of  all  lands  to 
enjoy  mutual  fraternity  and  fellowship  in  one  great 
Association,  including  all  other  associations,  churches 
and  nations,  with  a  single  bond  of  union,  *'.  e.,  "Holiness 
to  the  Lord,"  as  revealed  in  His  own  blessed  Book, 
independently  of  all  human  creeds. 

We  must  all  learn  the  great  lesson  of  harmony,  frater- 
nity, fellowship  and  union  on  the  one  great  all-absorbing 
Bible  doctrine  of  "Holiness  unto  the  Lord,"  scriptural, 
experimental  and  practical ;  entire  sanctification  as  the 
second  work  of  grace,  received  and  appropriated  by  faith 
in  the  cleansing  blood  administered  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  expurgation  of  inbred  sin,  after  a  clear  experience 
of  justification  through  the  vicarious  substitutionary 
atonement,  received  and  appropriated  by  faith,  and  the 
happy  experience  of  regeneration  wrought  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  the  heart  and  clearly  and  indubitably  witnessed 
by  the  same.  Meanwhile  we  extend  perfect  liberty  of 
conscience  on  all  of  the  ecclesiastical  phases  of  the  king- 
dom, i.  e.,  the  ordinances,  and  the  different  forms  of 
church  government.  We  have  but  one  end  in  view  and 
that  is  to  save  the  lost  world  for  whom  Jesus  died. 


PERORATION. 

"Brethren,  all  who  disagree, 

That  would  have  charity  to  please  us, 
Union  there  can  never  be, 

Unless  that  we're  one  In  Jesus, 
One  as  He  is  one  in  God, 

In  spirit  and  in  disposition ; 
This  the  Holy  Scriptures  teach, 

'Tis  plain  without  an  exposition." 

Now,  beloved,  you  have  the  book  for  which  yon  long 
clamored,  i.  e.,  my  autobiography.  It  simply  falls  in  line 
with  its  forty-seven  predecessors,  having  but  the  one  end 
in  view  and  that  is  that,  by  the  superabounding  grace  of 
God  in  Christ,  freely  dispensed  by  the  omnipotent  Holy 
Spirit,  all  of  the  dear  Holiness  people  to  whom  the  en- 
tire library  of  my  writings  is  dedicated,  regardless  of 
nationality,  race,  sect,  denomination  or  color,  shall  cer- 
tainly enjoy  the  supereminent  experience  which  is  the 
crowning  glory  of  New  Testament  saintship.  That  ex- 
perience is  the  real  Pentecostal  experience,  which  means 
a  heart  cleansed  by  the  precious  blood  through  simple 
receptive  and  appropriate  faith  (Acts  15:9),  and  cop- 
iously filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  (Acts  2:3).  While 
we  have  every  reason  to  fear  that  the  rank  and  file  of 
nominal  Christendom  are  actually  below  the  salvation 
line,  under  condemnation  and  exposed  to  wrath  and  Hell, 
horrible  dictu,  "horrible  to  tell,"  there  is  no  doubt  but  at 
least  nine-tenths  of  the  real  citizens  of  God's  kingdom 
on  the  earth  are  far  back  in  the  Old  Testament  dispen- 

504 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  505 

sation,  under  legal  bondage,  and  consequently  almost 
utterly  powerless  as  soul-savers,  whereas  it  is  the  glor- 
ious privilege  of  all  of  God's  children  in  the  wonderful 
Pentecostal  experience  actually  to  be  done  with  self, 
saved,  sanctified,  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  both 
efficiently  and  joyfully  co-operating  with  Jesus  in  their 
intercessory  prayers  for  this  lost  world,  and  successfully 
used  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  conviction  of  enemies, 
conversion  of  penitents,  sanctification  of  believers  and 
the  conservation  and  edification  of  this  "glorious  Church 
without  spot  or  wrinkle,  washed  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb." 

This  is  really  the  normal  attitude  of  New  Testament 
saintship.  Of  course  all  of  the  Holiness  people,  without 
a  single  exception,  hold  up  the  standard  to  that  identical 
supernal  altitude,  which  means  radically  sanctified  and 
copiously  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost.  Rest  assured  that 
means  an  everlasting  victory  over  the  world,  the  flesh 
and  the  devil,  experienced  in  the  heart  where  Christ  is 
enthroned  and  verified  in  the  life  in  which  He  reigns 
without  a  rival. 

When  I  was  a  little  boy  General  Jackson  was  elected 
to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  He  purchased 
from  the  French  Government  the  territory  bounded  on 
the  east  by  the  Tennessee  River,  south  by  the  State  of 
Tennessee,  north  by  the  Ohio  River,  and  west  by  the 
Mississippi  River,  and  added  it  to  Kentucky.  It  was  a 
howling  wilderness  hitherto  inhabited  by  wild  beasts  and 
savages.  Of  course  the  United  States  people  at  once 
poured  into  it.  At  that  time  the  Methodist  Church  had 
no  missionary  society.  Good  old  Bishop  Seoul,  as  lie 
rode  around  on  his  horse  through  the  blue-grass  region 


506  Autobiography  of 

of  Kentucky,  which  was  then  well  populated,  gathered  up 
money  in  all  of  his  meetings  to  establish  missions  in  that 
country,  known  as  "Jackson's  Purchase."  We  had  no 
way  to  send  them  the  money  as  we  do  now,  and  conse- 
quently he  had  to  carry  it  in  his  pocket.  While  riding 
along-  on  his  horse  alone,  through  a  great  dense  forest, 
suddenly  a  burly  robber  walked  out  of  the  thicket,  took 
his  horse  by  the  bridle,  looked  him  in  the  face  and  said, 
"Give  up  your  money  or  you  are  a  dead  man  in  a  minute." 
The  venerable  saint,  looking  the  robber  straight  in  the 
face  and  putting  his  hand  on  the  money  in  his  pocket, 
said,  "I  have  got  money,  I  do  not  deny  it,  but  it  is  God's 
money  and  you  cannot  get  it."  He  had  not  a  solitary 
weapon,  not  so  much  as  a  pocket-knife.  As  he  continued 
to  look  the  robber  in  the  face,  he  turned  pale  as  a  corpse, 
let  go  the  bridle  and  disappeared  in  the  forest.  The 
man  of  God  went  on  his  way  rejoicing  and  delivered  the 
money  to  the  missionaries.  The  solution  of  this  was  the 
simple  fact  that  God  was  in  the  old  bishop.  Therefore 
utterly  unarmed  he  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  big 
robber  with  his  implements  of  death. 

The  last  time  I  ever  saw  Bishop  Kavanaugh,  we  rode 
together  on  the  train  about  fifty  miles,  spending  the  time 
in  profitable  conversation  about  the  things  of  God.  He 
much  interested  me  telling  about  the  pioneer  preachers 
of  Kentucky,  among  whom  was  a  very  angelic  little  man 
by  the  name  of  John  Sinclair.  He  said  that  at  one  place 
on  his  pioneer  circuit  in  the  wild  woods  the  people  had 
built  a  rough,  unhewn  log  meeting-house,  whereas  every- 
where else  he  preached  in  their  cabins  or  beneath  the 
trees.  One  Sunday  morning  while  preaching,  soma 
ruffians  behaved  so  very  rudely  as  to  constrain  him  to 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.-M.  507 

rebuke  them  severely,  upon  which  they  all  retired  from 
the  house.  After  the  old  Methodist  style,  he  wound  up 
with  a  class-meeting,  in  which  they  all  told  their  ex- 
periences, and  the  Lord  poured  on  them  from  Heaven  a 
wonderful  Pentecost,  giving  them  a  glorious  shouting" 
time.  Then  mounting  his  horse  he  proceeded  on  his 
journey  through  the  dense  forest,  pursuing  a  blind  bridle- 
path. After  he  had  gotten  clearly  away  from  all  the 
dispersing  people,  he  recognized  three  men  before  him  in 
the  road,  and  as  he  drew  nigh  identified  them  with  the 
ruffians  whom  he  had  rebuked.  They  all  met  him,  took 
his  horse  by  the  bridle  and  told  him  that  they  were  the 
young  men  whom  he  had  insulted  that  morning,  and  they 
were  going  to  whip  him.  Then  they  proceeded  to  tell 
him  that  they  would  not  take  advantage  of  him,  as  they 
had  already  cast  lots  and  determined  on  the  one  who 
should  give  him  the  thrashing,  while  the  other  two  stood 
by  to  see  that  he  gave  him  fair  play.  Therefore  they  told 
him  to  dismount,  to  take  off  his  coat  and  get  ready.  Sit- 
ting in  his  saddle,  he  looked  into  the  face  of  the  one 
selected  to  give  him  the  whipping,  and  said,  "Sir,  I  want 
to  thank  you  twice  before  you  begin;  first,  I  thank  you 
for  the  whipping,  because  they  gave  it  to  my  Savior  and 
His  Apostles,  and  I  am  so  glad  to  have  the  honor  and  the 
blessing  of  their  succession  ;  then  I  want  to  thank  you 
again  for  giving  it  to  me  now,  because  I  am  in  the  best 
fix  to  take  a  whipping  that  I  ever  was  in  my  life,  as  I 
am  just  out  of  a  wonderful  meeting  in  which  God  flooded 
my  soul  with  Heaven."  Thus  looking  them  in  the  face, 
he  was  just  unutterably  happy.  Then  turning  to  his 
fellows,  the  ruffian  said,  "Boys,  there  is  too  much  God 
Almighty  in  this  man  for  me  to  attack  him,  and  I  am 


508  Autobiography  off 

not  going  to  do  it;  therefore  if  he  gets  a  thrashing  one 
of  you  will  have  to  give  it  to  him."  But  the  other  two 
came  to  the  same  conclusion  that  there  was  too  much 
God  in  him  for  them  to  lay  hands  on  him,  therefore  he 
got  no  thrashing,  but  preached  to  the  young  men  and 
went  on  his  way  rejoicing. 

When  I  was  called,  early  in  the  "Holiness  Movement," 
(as  God  used  me  as  a  pioneer  from  the  Atlantic  to 
Mexico),  into  Mississippi  to  conduct  a  camp-meeting. 
Satan  had  circulated  so  many  awful  lies  on  the  Holiness 
people,  reporting  that  we  were  Mormons  and  would 
separate  husbands  and  wives  and  all  kinds  of  falsifica- 
tions throughout  that  country  where  they  had  never  seen 
Holiness  people,  that  the  night  before  they  were  going 
to  set  up  the  tabernacle  a  great  mob  came  to  burn  it. 
Among  the  few  sanctified  people  in  that  country  was  a 
little  woman  of  ninety  pounds,  whose  Christian  husband 
had  received  the  tabernacle,  shipped  from  St.  Louis,  and 
laid  it  on  the  veranda.  At  midnight  there  was  a  voice. 
He  opened  the  door,  and  they  told  him  to  go  back,  as 
they  had  come  to  burn  that  tabernacle  and  they  were 
going  to  do  it.  Then  the  little  woman  said,  "Jim,  stay 
with  the  children  and  I  will  meet  the  mob."  Having 
plead  with  them  not  to  burn  the  tabernacle,  and  prayed 
for  them,  but  all  apparently  in  vain,  she  climbed  upon  it, 
sat  down  and  said,  "This  country  has  long  needed  a 
martyr,  and  will  have  one  now,  as  I  will  surely  burn  with 
this  tabernacle."  In  vain  they  strove  to  scarce  her  off. 
Finally,  when  they  saw  that  she  was  going  to  burn  with 
it,  they  gave  up  and  went  away.  Before  the  meeting  was 
over,  I  saw  two  hundred  of  those  wicked  people  at  one 
time  stretched  out  on  the  ground,  crying  to  God  to  save 


Rev.  W.  B.  Godbey,  A.  M.  509 

them.  Among  those  who  prayed  through,  quite  a  num- 
ber testified  that  they  were  in  the  mob  that  came  to  burn 
the  tabernacle.  What  was  the  solution?  The  little  wo- 
man had  God  in  her  heart,  and  consequently  was  more 
than  a  match  for  the  mob.  So  it  will  be  with  you,  while 
He  abides  in  your  heart. 

"My  rest  is  in  Heaven,  my  home  is  not  here; 
Then  why  should  I  murmur  at  trials  severe? 
Come  trouble,  come  sorrow,  the  worst  that  can  come 
But  shortens  my  journey  and  hastens  me  home." 


The  End. 


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Autobiography. 


EX 

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